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Florence  li.  v/ard 
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DIET    AND    FOOD 


DIET  AND  FOOD 


(Ionstt)eve^  in  relation  to  Strenatb  ant)  power 
ot  JEnburance,  ZTraining  ant)  Htbletics 


BY 

ALEXANDER  HAIG,  M.A.,  M.D.  Oxon.,  F.R.C.P. 

Physician  to  the  Metropolitan  Hospital,  and  the  Royal  Hospital 
for  Children  and  Women 

AUTHOR  OF   "uric   ACID   AS  A   FACTOR  IN  THE   CAUSATION  OF  DISEASE" 


THIRD  EDITION 


WITH      FIVE     ILLUSTRATIONS 


Philadelphia 
P.  BLAKISTON'S    SON    &    CO. 
1012,  WALNUT  STEEET 


PRINTED   IN  GREAT  B«ITMN. 


1901 


First  Edition,  September,  1898. 
Second  Edition,  January,  1900. 
Third  Edition,  January,  1901. 


\  901 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIRD  EDITION. 

The  year  that  has  elapsed  since  the  last  edition 
has  been  one  of  great  activity  in  uric  acid  research ; 
but  this  has  entailed  no  alteration  in  the  prevention 
of  suffering,  which  remains  as  before,  the  exclusion 
of  the  poison. 

It  has,  however,  borne  most  emphatic  testimony  to 
the  far-reaching  importance  of  the  subject,  and  I 
feel  that  I  should  fail  in  my  duty  if  I  did  not  speak 
out  on  some  points. 

I  would  say,  then,  that  in  hospital  work,  where 
there  is  no  selection  of  cases,  something  like  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  sorrow  and  suffering  which  I,  as 
a  physician,  am  asked  to  relieve,  could  have  been 
prevented  by  exclusion  of  the  poisons. 

Yet  only  too  often  when  it  comes  before  us  it  is 
too  late,  and  fatal  damage  of  structure  cannot  be 
repaired. 

It  is  to  me,  for  instance,  always  a  painful  experience 
to  see  children  with  severe  morbus  cordis,  forging 
through  months  of  suffering  to  certain  death  ;  and 
the  knowledge  that  it  might  have  been  prevented,  only 
increases  my  regret  that  it  was  not.      It  is  a  matter 


VI.  PREFACE 

of  little  consequence  whether  the  uric  acid  is  driven 
into  the  fibrous  tissues  by  cold,  or  the  action  of  a 
microbe  ;  but  it  is  a  matter  of  vast  importance  that, 
if  the  uric  acid  is  absent,  neither  the  cold  nor  the 
microbe  can  destroy  life,  as  they  are  now  constantly 
doing. 

With  those  who  have  grown  up  on  our  present 
diet  customs  it  is  again  too  late,  the  time  for  pre- 
vention has  gone,  and  only  a  patch-work  repair  can 
be  attempted. 

But  for  the  children,  the  coming  race  of  the  new 
century,  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  present  suffer- 
ing can  be  avoided,  if  the  points  can  be  grasped. 

The  fact  that  uric  acid  controls  the  circulation 
would  almost  alone  suffice  to  carry  this  statement ; 
and  I  appeal  to  those  of  the  profession  who  have 
followed  my  reasoning  and  applied  it  in  their  work, 
to  say  whether  I  am  overstating  the  case. 

The  new  century  can  easily  be  better  and  happier 
than  the  past  one  ;  but  if  it  is  to  be  so  to  any  great 
extent,  I  am  sure  that  humanly  speaking  this  can 
only  come  about  through  a  widespread  and  intelli- 
gent appreciation  of  the  fact,  that  man  is  indeed 
what  he  eats. 


7,  Brook  Street,  London,  W. 
January,  1901. 


PKEFACE. 


In  attempting  to  alter  people's  diet  so  as  to  free 
them  from  the  poisonous  xanthins  and  uric  acid,  I 
have  met  with  so  much  ignorance,  and  its  results 
prejudice  and  superstition,  that  I  have  been  led  to 
write  these  pages  in  the  hope  of  making  rather 
clearer  the  position  that  diet  holds  in  relation  to 
these  matters  of  strength  and  nutrition. 

And  I  believe  that  I  speak  no  more  than  the  truth 
when  I  say  that  once  a  clear  knowledge  of  the  facts 
is  obtained  and  a  workmanlike  and  useful  grasp  of 
the  subject  is  attained,  it  will  be  foulid  that  in  diet 
lies  the  key  to  nine-tenths  of  the  social  and  political 
problems  that  vex  our  nation  and  time. 

Diet,  as  at  present  used,  is  often  the  product  of 
a  vast  amount  of  ignorance  ;  it  is  the  cause  of  a 
hideous  waste  of  time  and  money ;  it  produces 
mental  and  moral  obliquities,  destroys  health  and 
shortens  life,  and  generally  quite  fails  to  fulfil  its 
proper  purpose. 

It  is  my  object  in  the  following  pages  to  show  that 
it  may  be  easily  made  to  fulfil  its  proper  purpose, 
and  that  with  even  a  partial  removal  of  the  ignorance 


Vlll.  PREFACE 

that  surrounds  it,  the  waste  of  time  and  money  may 
be  prevented,  and  the  dangers  to  hfe  and  health 
averted. 

But  after  pointing  out  the  possibihty  I  shall  leave 
the  facts  to  speak  for  themselves,  as  those  will  most 
completely  understand  them  who  put  them  to  the 
test  of  experience. 


7,  Brook  Street,  London,  W. 
August,  1898. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I. 

PAGE 

Some  points  in  the  Physiology  of  Albumen  and  Urea  . .  . .       1 

Chapter  II. 
Physiology  and  Pathology  of  Fatigue        30 

Chapter  III. 
Foods  Available  :  their  Properties  and  Kelative  Importance  . .     46 

Chapter  IV. 

Values  of  Foods  in  Albumen  and  Urea.     Quantities  Required. 

Diet  of  Training  and  Athletics 57 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Fig.  1. — Effects  of  Fasting  and  Food  on  the  Excretion  of  Urea  3 

Fig.  2.— Effects  of  Milk  on  the  Excretion  of  Urea         . .         . .  12 

Fig.  3. — Effects  of  Cheese  on  the  Excretion  of  Urea     . .         . .  16 

Fig.  4. — Effects  of  Sugar  on  the  Excretion  of  Urea  and  of  Acid  18 

Fig.  5. — Effects  of  an  Acid  on  the  Excretion  of  Urea  and  of  Acid  20 


DIET    AND    FOOD. 


CHAPTEK  1. 

Some  Points  in  the  Physiology  of  Albumen 
AND   Urea. 

Health  may  be  defined  as  a  satisfactory  condition 
of  nutrition,  strength,  and  power  of  endurance. 

In  considering  how  such  a  satisfactory  condi- 
tion can  be  produced  we  shall  have  to  treat  of  the 
albumens  of  the  food,  their  sources,  characters, 
digestibility  and  the  amounts  of  force  and  urea 
derived  from  their  metabolism  in  the  body. 

In  far  off  olden  times,  when  man  was  a  more 
natural  and  less  refined  animal  than  at  present. 
Nature  managed  the  whole  business  for  him,  and 
he  either  died  or  attained  to  a  satisfactory  condition 
of  health  and  nutrition  without  knowing  how  or 
why. 

But  when  later  on  he  began  to  control  some  of 
the  conditions  of  his  own  nutrition  without  having 
obtained  a  thorough  comprehension  of  all  their 
1 


2  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

bearings,  he  here,  as  in  so  many  other  points  of 
contact  with  Nature,  upset  her  scales  and  balances 
without  being  prepared  to  substitute  any  more 
satisfactory  ones  in  their  place,  and  suffered  in  con- 
sequence from  many  unexpected  and  terrible  results 
of  his  rashness. 

And  even  now  many  men  are  attempting  to  carry 
the  diet  of  youth  on  into  middle  life  and  age,  or  the 
diet  that  was  quite  correct  for  an  active  outdoor 
life  into  a  life  of  sedentary  office  work  in  a  town ; 
or  if  they  fall  into  neither  of  these  errors  they  are 
generally  completely  ignorant  with  regard  to  the 
relative  value  and  importance  of  foods,  so  that  they 
either  starve  themselves  on  vegetables  or  herbs 
containing  little  or  no  albumen,  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  over-feed  themselves  on  the  most  concentrated 
albuminous  foods. 

Now  to  prevent  such  mistakes  and  to  substitute 
a  certain  amount  of  scientific  precision  for  the 
previous  rule  of  thumb  methods  is  the  object  of 
this  little  book,  and  so  we  may  say  that  the  first 
essential  of  nutrition  is  the  supply  to  the  blood  of 
sufficient  albumen  to  replace  that  transformed  into 
urea  in  the  production  of  force. 

If  food  is  withheld  urea  goes  down  and  down,  and 
with  it  falls  the  power  of  producing  force  in  active 
exercise. 

Fig.  1  shows  in  a  curve  the  hourly  excretion  of 
urea    in   the    sixteenth,   fifteenth,   fourteenth    and 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA      3 

earlier  hours  of  a  fast,  no  food  having  been  taken 
since  8.30  p.m.  on  the  previous  day. 

We  see,  then,  that  in  the  hour  ending  at  8  a.m., 
urea  is  a  httle  above  13  grains  and  it  rises  in  the 


|l7 

80A.W 

90 

100 

110 

12  NOON 

10  P.M. 

20 

30 

/ 

15 
14- 

1 

/ 

/" 

A 

.      , 

A 

1 

12 
II 

V 

l\ 

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V 

J 

Fig.  1. — Effects  cf  fasting  and  food  on  the  excretion  of  urea. 

hour  ending  at  9  a.m.  to  a  trifle  above  14  grains ; 
this  is  probably  the  result  of  the  exercise  involved 
in  the  acts  of  washing  and  dressing. 


4  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

At  10  it  falls,  and  at  11  is  only  about  12*5  grains, 
but  at  12  it  rises  again  nearly  to  14  grains  as  the 
result  of  some  exercise,  only  to  fall  more  quickly  and 
decidedly  down  to  11  grains  at  1  p.m.  At  1.5  food  is 
taken  and  at  2  there  is  a  rise,  but  only  a  slight  rise, 
to  11*5  grains  ;  at  3,  however,  the  full  effect  of  the 
meal  begins  to  be  felt  and  it  rises  with  a  bound  to 
16'7  grains  per  hour.  The  total  for  the  day  being  a 
little  over  400  grains,  or  17  grains  per  hour. 

We  see,  then,  from  this  figure,  that  the  effect  of 
withholding  food  for  sixteen  hours  is  a  steady  fall  of 
urea  (only  the  latter  part  of  which  we  see  here) ,  from 
17  grains  or  more  per  hour  down  to  11,  but  this  fall 
is  broken  from  time  to  time  by  the  effects  of  exercise, 
which  appears  to  call  out  some  albumen  or  nitrogen 
from  some  reserve  store,  about  which  more  presently. 

We  also  see  that  with  this  fall  of  urea  there  is  a 
steady  corresponding  diminution  of  strength  and 
power  of  endurance,  that  is,  of  force  production,  and 
that  with  the  rise  of  urea,  which  at  3  p.m.  follows 
the  taking  and  digestion  of  food,  there  is  an  equally 
marked  rise  of  general  strength  and  power. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  excretion  of  urea  is  the 
measure  of  the  force  available,  and  that  its  falls  and 
rises  accurately  register  the  conditions  of  the  nutri- 
tion, strength,  and  endurance  of  the  body. 

We  know  also  that  this  urea  is  generally  obtained 
from  the  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  albumen  contained 
in  food,  that    there   is  also    a  certain    amount    of 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA      5 

stored  albumen  in  some  of  the  tissues,  and  that  in 
prolonged  starvation,  nitrogen  is  further  provided 
by  destruction  of  the  tissues  themselves,  this  being 
accompanied  by  a  definite  daily  decrease  in  body 
weight. 

We  shall  see  that  such  loss  of  body  v^eight  is  an 
exact  measure  of  the  albumens  consumed,  and  of 
the  urea  and  force  produced  from  them. 

So  that  when  the  condition  arrives  that  there  is 
no  more  albumen  available  for  absorption,  no  more 
reserves  and  no  food,  urea  and  force  alike  cease  to 
be  produced,  and  life  comes  to  an  end. 

From  this  we  may  conclude  that  urea  excreted  is 
an  exact  measure  of  force  produced,  and  that  albu- 
men available  is  also  an  exact  measure  of  the  force 
that  can  be  produced  (see  also  chap.  iv.). 

We  shall  see  also  as  I  have  already  suggested 
in  *'  Uric  Acid  "^  as  the  result  of  other  researches, 
that  those  who  believed  that  strength  could  be  got 
out  of  food  containing  no  nitrogen,  and  that  urea 
was  therefore  not  an  absolute  measure  of  strength 
and  power,  had  flaws  in  their  premisses  which 
seriously  affected  the  value  of  their  conclusions. 

I  mention  this  here  because  the  relation  between 
urea,  albumen  and  force,  is  the  keynote  of  this 
volume  ;  but  I  shall  have  much  further  evidence  to 


*  "  Uric  Acid  as  a  Factor  in  the  Causation  of  Disease." 
Fifth  Edition.  J.  and  A.  Churchill.  London:  1900.  Pp. 
335,  340. 


6  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  I 

bring  forward  on  the  subject  in  the  pages  that 
follow. 

Further,  by  watching  my  own  excretion  of  urea 
for  many  years  (see  details  in  **  Uric  Acid  ")  as  well 
as  on  all  kinds  of  diets,  I  have  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  given  a  sufficient  amount  of  albuminous 
food,  which  can  be  digested  and  metabolised  in  the 
body  into  sufficient  urea,  I  can  produce  force  propor- 
tional to  that  urea,  without  much  regard  to  the 
quantities  of  other  non-albuminous  foods  taken. 

So  that  while  sugar,  starch  and  oil  do,  under 
certain  conditions  which  I  shall  demonstrate  pres- 
ently, affect  to  a  small  extent  the  production  of  urea 
and  force,  their  influence  is  always  indirect,  and 
generally  of  so  little  importance  that  in  a  purely 
practical  work  like  the  present  it  may  be  neglected. 

We  are  now  at  once  met  by  the  question,  how 
much  urea  and  how  much  albumen  are  sufficient ; 
and  as  most  physiologists  are  agreed  that  good 
strength  and  nutrition  in  adult  life  can  be  main- 
tained on  about  S^  grains  of  urea  per  lb.  of  body 
weight  per  day,  and  as  my  own  researches  (see 
*'  Uric  Acid,"  fifth  edition,  p.  744,  et  seq.)  are  in 
substantial  agreement  with  them,  I  shall  adopt  this 
standard  without  further  consideration  here. 

Then  it  is  a  rough  but  sufficiently  accurate  rule 
that  the  albumens  required  to  produce  any  given 
quantity  of  urea  can  be  found  in  grains  by  multiply- 
ing the  grains  of  urea  by  3. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UEEA      i 

So  that  if  we  take  the  weight  of  any  individual 
in  pounds — if  there  is  much  adipose  tissue  either 
deduct  it,  or  take  the  body  weight  (if  known)  before 
the  adipose  tissue  was  added, — and  multiply  this 
by  3  if  life  is  sedentary,  and  by  3" 5  if  life  is 
active,  we  get  the  urea  required,  and  if  this  is  again 
multiplied  by  3  we  shall  get  the  albumens  required 
to  produce  it. 

Example. — A  man  weighs  160  lbs.,  but  his  active 
weight  twenty  years  ago  before  he  became  stout  was 
only  130  lbs.,  and  he  is  now  sedentary ;  therefore 
(130  X  3  X  3)  =  1,170;  and  1,170,  or,  say  1,200 
grains  of  albumen  per  day  will  be  required  for  his 
proper  nutrition  and  force  production. 

But  if  such  a  man  leads,  or  wishes  to  lead,  a 
decidedly  active  life,  multiply  130  X  3*5  X  3  and 
1,365  grains  of  albumen  would  be  required  each 
day. 

Old  people  produce  much  less  urea,  say  down  to 

2  grains  per  lb.  per  day;  thus  an  old  man  might 
only  require  130  x  2  x  3  =  780  grains  of  albumen 
and  he  would  also,  of  course,  produce  much  less 
force. 

Children,  on  the  other  hand,  require  much  more, 
and  may  produce  6-8  and  even  10  grains  of  urea  per 
lb. ;  thus  a  child  of  35  lbs.  may  require  35   X   10   x 

3  =  1,050  grains  of  albumen  per  day. 

An  interesting  instance  of  this  came  under  notice 
in  the  case  of   a  boy  aged   10,  admitted   into   the 


8  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

Koyal  Hospital  for  Children  and  Women,  suffering 
from  albuminuria  and  having  a  normal  temperature. 

He  was  put  on  a  diet  of  milk  only,  by  accident 
he  was  given  '2J  pints,  an  insufficient  quantity  of 
albumens. 

On  this  he  lost  weight  to  the  extent  of  7  lbs.  in 
eleven  days,  his  weight  on  admission  being  53  lbs. 

Now  the  albumen  in  2|-  pints  milk  =  590  grs. 

And  the  albumen  in  10  ozs.  of  his 
own  tissues  containing  say,  18 
percent =  786  grs. 


1,376  grs. 

So  that  we  get  1,376  grains  of  albumen  as  the 
quantity  this  boy  required  each  day,  and  this  divided 
by  3  gives  458  grains  of  urea,  or  8*6  grains  per  lb. 
per  day  on  his  original  weight  of  53  lbs. 

Now  this  is  very  interesting,  as  Nature  here  made 
up  the  deficit  and  told  us  how  much  albumen  and 
urea  per  lb.  this  boy  required,  and  I  have  often 
found  children  of  this  age  excreting  urea  to  about 
the  quantity  thus  calculated,  and  younger  ones  still 
more  per  lb. 

As  soon  as  the  mistake  was  discovered  the  milk 
was  increased,  the  loss  of  weight  ceased,  and  the 
amount  lost  was  slowly  regained. 

Precisely  the  same  results  have  often  been  pro- 
duced in  adults,  who  for  one  reason  or  another  have 
starved  themselves,  and  here  again  the  urea  excreted 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA      9 

would  be  found  to  correspond  to  the  albumens 
swallowed  and  the  tissues  absorbed. 

I  may  remark  also  that  those  who  starve  them- 
selves may  feel  very  bright  and  well  at  first,  after 
the  usual  gastric  symptoms  of  discomfort  give  way ; 
as  they  are  being  nourished  on  a  stimulating  flesh 
diet  from  their  own  tissues,  and  are  saving  some  of 
the  force  usually  expended  on  digestion. 

But  later  on,  when  their  reserve  of  albumens  has 
long  been  used  up,  and  their  tissue  albumens  begin 
to  get  low,  they  may  discover  that  they  have  been 
living  on  capital  which  should  never  have  been 
touched,  and  which  it  is  difficult  to  replace ;  for  with 
all  their  forces,  including  that  of  digestion,  at  a  low 
ebb,  it  will  take  them  a  comparatively  long  time  to 
assimilate  sufficient  albumens  to  keep  the  machine 
working  as  well  as  to  replace  the  lost  capital.  And 
these  considerations  sufficiently  account  for  the  fact 
of  which  I  have  seen  many  instances,  that  those 
who  put  themselves  on  an  unaccustomed  diet  often 
dangerously  diminish  their  allowance  of  albumens 
for  some  time  before  they  discover  that  there  is  any- 
thing wrong,  and  then  find  great  difficulty  in  get- 
ting back  to  physiological  levels. 

Thus  while  10  grs.  of  albumen  per  lb.  of  body 
weight  is  required  for  an  active  life,  9  grs.  per  lb. 
is  about  the  minimum  that  an  adult  can  take  and 
continue  to  take  with  safet}' . 

Of  course  in  the  treatment  of  disease  and  for  a 


10  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

day  or  two,  much  smaller  quantities  may  have  to 
be  taken ;  but  whenever  this  is  necessary  there 
should  always  be  a  corresponding  reduction  in  the 
output  of  force,  or  there  will  be  a  call  on  the  reserves 
and  a  loss  of  weight,  which  should  be  avoided  if 
possible. 

I  mention  this  9  grs.  minimum  specially  because 
I  find  that  people,  who  do  not  take  care,  get  below 
it  for  a  time,  by  accident  or  mere  want  of  attention, 
and  then  get  weak,  and  being  weak  perhaps  get 
easily  fatigued,  and  then  the  fatigue  destroys  their 
appetite  and  power  of  digestion ;  and  so  they  go  on 
eating  ever  less  and  less,  till  some  of  them  get  to 
7  or  even  6  grs.  per  lb.  per  day,  and  are  on  a  down- 
ward grade  which  will  take  them  still  lower  if  it 
is  not  put  a  stop  to. 

The  best  treatment  of  this  condition  is  to  quickly 
increase  milk  or  cheese  to  make  up  the  9  grs.  per 
lb.,  and  to  give  a  tonic  for  a  time  to  improve 
appetite  and  digestion  till  the  fire  burns  up  again. 

And  it  is  because  the  fire  goes  down  slowly, 
and  the  change  often  escapes  notice  till  more  or 
less  serious  signs  of  debility  begin  to  appear,  that 
it  is  necessary  to  bestow  some  care  at  first  to  ensure 
that  the  proper  quantities  of  albumen  are  being 
taken  by  those  who  are  changing  diets. 

If  at  any  time  there  is  a  doubt  on  the  matter 
the  urine  of  24  hours  should  be  collected  and  the 
urea  estimated  to  make  certain. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     11 

Given  sufficient  albumens,  it  is  a  matter  of  very- 
little  consequence  where  they  come  from,  whether 
from  the  animal  or  vegetable  kingdom,  though,  of 
course,  where  poisons  are  swallowed  with  the  albu- 
mens, these  will  influence  the  results,  as  we  shall 
see  further  on ;  but  the  first  point  is,  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  albumen,  and  this  in  a  condition  suitable 
for  digestion  and  absorption. 

With  these  simple  facts  kept  ever  in  mind  there  is 
no  difficulty  at  all  in  getting  sufficient  albumen,  and 
therefore  sufficient  strength  and  nutrition,  out  of 
many  kinds  of  food  besides  those  which  form  the 
staple  diet  of  England  to-day. 

But  those  who  have  been  ignorant  of  these  facts, 
and  have  attempted  to  walk  without  the  light  of 
knowledge,  have  fallen  into  many  and  great  errors, 
but  chiefly  in  one  of  two  directions. 

Either  they  have  been  ignorant  of  the  quantities 
required,  and  have  greatly  over-estimated  the  nutri- 
tion values  of  garden  vegetables  and  garden  fruits, 
attempting  to  live  on  these  alone,  which  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  do.  Or  they  have  under- 
estimated the  nutrition  values  of  such  things  as 
milk  and  cheese,  and  attempted  to  eat  them  in  as 
large  quantities  as  the  above  fruits  and  vegetables. 

It  is  also  possible,  by  introducing  more  food  than 
can  readily  be  digested,  to  overpower  digestion,  so 
that  nothing  is  digested  and  absorbed,  and  starva- 
tion  results,  a  fact  which  is  brought  to  the  front 


12 


DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 


in  the  most  interesting  manner  in  the  writings  of 
Dr.  Dewey. ^ 


i 

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Fig.  2. — Effects  of  milk  on  the  excretion  of  urea. 


>  "The  True  Science  of  Living,"  by  E.  H.  Dewey,  M.D., 
Norwich,  Conn.  The  Henry  Bill  Publishing  Company,  and 
J.  and  J.  Bumpus,  Ltd.,  Oxford  Street,  London,  England.     1895. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     13 

We  learn  then  from  fig.  1  that  as  suppHes  run 
short,  urea  and  the  power  of  force  production  fall 
lower  and  lower,  but  that  a  supply  of  food  does 
when  digested,  and  generally  in  the  course  of  thirty 
to  ninety  minutes,  introduce  into  the  blood  a  fresh 
supply  of  albumens  available  for  the  production  of 
force  and  urea,  and  then  up  goes  the  urea  curve,  and 
the  power  of  producing  force  is  correspondingly 
increased. 

And  this  is  a  very  simple  experiment  which  any 
one  can  repeat  on,  in  and  for,  themselves. 

Fig.  2  shows  the  effect  of  a  similar  fast  to  that 
of  fig.  1,  broken  in  the  thirteenth  hour  after  8  p.m., 
by  the  taking  of  ^  pint  of  milk. 

Here  in  the  hour  ending  8  a.m.,  urea  is  at  12 
grains  per  hour  and  it  rises  at  9.0  above  18  grains 
and  gradually  falls  from  that  on  till  1  p.m.,  when  it 
is  about  13  grains  per  hour.  Now  if  we  take  it  that 
urea,  if  no  food  had  been  taken,  would  have  gradually 
fallen  from  12  grains  per  hour  to  9*5  grains  per  hour 
at  1  p.m.  and  draw  an  imaginary  line  accordingly,  the 
urea  enclosed  between  these  two  lines  will  equal  that 
produced  in  five  hours  from  the  albumens  of  milk 
taken,  and  this  is  about  28  grains  or  almost  exactly 
§  of  the  calculated  urea  value  of  ^  pint  of  milk, 
and  probably  the  rest  would  have  been  obtained, 
only  longer  time  was  necessary  for  it  to  come  out. 
Similarly  with  cheese  and  other  foods  their  urea 
value   to    some    extent   comes    out    in   five   hours 


14  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

following  ingestion,  and  thus  roughly  the  nutrition 
value  and  digestibility  of  many  foods  may  be 
directly  tested  on  any  individual  about  whom  the 
information  may  be  required. 

Thus  fig.  3  shows  the  effect  of  taking  at  8.15  a.m. 
1  oz.  of  cheese.  Here  we  see  that  in  contrast  with 
what  happened  with  milk,  it  is  only  in  the  second 
hour  after  the  cheese  that  we  get  a  rise  of  urea. 

Then  considering  that  urea  would  have  fallen 
much  as  in  the  other  figures,  if  no  cheese  had  been 
taken,  we  get  urea  enclosed  between  the  two  lines 
equal  to  17"7,  say  18  grains,  and  this  multiplied  by 
3  is  equal  to  54  grains  of  albumen. 

But  this  cheese  is  theoretically  equivalent  to  140 
grains  of  albumen,  so  that  in  five  hours  of  digestion 
we  have  got  less  than  half  its  urea  and  albumen 
value. 

This  looks  as  if  cheese  is  both  harder  and  slower 
of  digestion  than  milk,  and  is  probably  after  all  less 
completely  digested  and  leaves  greater  undigested 
residues. 

I  must  say,  however,  that  the  cheese  taken  was 
Gruyere,  and  it  was  somewhat  hard  from  keeping, 
which  probably  accounts  for  part  of  its  slow  diges- 
tion and  indigestibility ;  still  I  give  the  result  to 
show  how  the  probable  nutrition  value  of  foods  may 
be  gauged  by  this  process. 

Many  people  say  that  they  cannot  digest  milk  or 
cheese ;  but  a  few  tests  similar  to  these  would  soon 
show  whether  there  was  any  truth  in  the  statement. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UEEA     15 


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Fig.  3. — Effects  of  cheese  on  the  excretion  of  urea. 


16  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

A  similar  test  may  be  applied  to  such  foods  as 
nuts,  Protene,  Plasmon  and  gluten,  to  be  mentioned 
further  on.  And  all  these  dry  or  hard  albumens  are, 
in  my  experience,  more  slowly  digested  than  cheese, 
just  as  one  would  expect,  and  for  the  same  reason, 
as  we  see,  cheese  is  more  slowly  digested  than  milk. 

People  vary  considerably  in  their  powers  of  digest- 
ing these  things,  and  while  some  will  produce  urea 
from  them  equal  to  at  least  J  of  their  calculated 
value,  others  will  produce  much  less  down  to  less 
than  half  their  value,  and  others  again  appear  not 
to  digest  them  at  all,  there  being  no  rise  of  urea 
whatever. 

Things  which  increase  appetite  and  digestive 
power  appear  to  increase  the  urea  that  is  obtained 
from  these  dried  forms  of  albumen,  and  thus  some 
people  can  digest  these  foods  when  leading  an  active 
life,  and  not  when  sedentary. 

The  time  at  which  they  are  taken  and  their 
admixture  with  other  foods  make  also  important 
differences  in  the  results  obtained,  and  I  mention 
these  things  here  to  bring  out  the  value  of  the 
above  test,  for  the  quantity  of  urea  produced  from 
any  food  in  a  given  time  is  an  absolute  guide  to  the 
nutrition  value  of  that  food  for  the  individual  on 
whom  we  are  working;  and  by  this  test  milk  stands 
quite  at  the  head  of  the  list,  and  is  followed  by 
cheese,  and  some  way  behind  this  by  the  above  and 
other  forms  of  hard  or  desiccated  albumens. 


PHYSIOLOGY   OF   ALBUMEN   AND   UilEA  17 

Those  who  are  in  doubt  should  put  the  matter 
to  the  test  and  judge  by  the  results. 

In  those,  who  cannot  digest  these  hardened  albu- 
mens at  all,  they  may  act  as  irritants  and  upset 
digestion  of  other  foods  as  well,  causing,  it  may  be, 
more  or  less  severe  dyspepsia,  with  loss  of  weight 
and  strength,  so  that  something  like  actual  starva- 
tion may  result,  even  on  a  diet  of  which  the  calcu- 
lated albumens  are  sufi&cient.  It  is  in  some  cases 
not  only  useless  to  svv^allow  hard  or  desiccated 
albumens,  but  it  may  be  actually  dangerous  to  do  so. 

On  the  other  hand  small  quantities  of  such  in- 
digestible substances  as  a  few  Brazil  nuts,  three 
times  a  day  before  meals,  will  sometimes  cure 
chronic  constipation  which  is  otherwise  almost 
incurable,  and  they  probably  bring  about  this  result 
by  leaving  undigested  residues  which  stimulate  the 
intestines  and  promote  peristalsis ;  figs,  prunes, 
wholemeal  or  brown  bread  may  be  mentioned  as 
having  more  or  less  similar  effects. 

In  all  cases  it  is  necessary  to  hit  the  happy  mean 
between  constipation  on  the  one  hand,  and  chronic 
dyspepsia  with  starvation  on  the  other;  and  those 
who  have  altered  their  diet  without  knowing  much 
about  physiology  have  not  always  kept  these  points 
sufficiently  in  mind. 

Then  in  those  who  have  previously  suffered  from 
intestinal  irritation,  such  as  gout  of  the  intestines, 
appendicitis,  &c.,  such  indigestible  substances  must 
2 


18 


DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 


be  specially  avoided,  or  relapse  of  their  troubles  may 
be  produced. 

Fig.  4  shows  the  effect  of  swallowing  1  oz.  of 
brown  sugar,  which  was  finished  at  8.40  a.m. 


1 

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Fig.  4. — Effects  of  sugar  on  the  excretion  of  urea  and  of  acid. 

Here  we  see  a  very  marked  rise  of  urea,  from  18 
grains  in  the  hour  ending  9.10,  to  16  grains  in  that 
ending  10.10,  followed  by  a  fall  down  to  11 '5  grains 
in  the  hour  ending  1.10  p.m. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     19 

Now  this  rise  of  urea  cannot  be  directly  due  to 
the  sugar,  for  it  contains  no  nitrogen,  but  the  result 
is  probably  due  to  the  rise  of  acidity  which  pre- 
cedes it. 

Below  the  urea  curve  is  shown  the  excretion 
of  acid  in  the  urine  in  grains  per  hour,  and  from 
this  we  see  that  there  was  a  marked  rise  in  the 
excretion  of  acid  in  the  hour  ending  9.10,  and  that 
it  kept  at  the  same  level  in  the  two  following  hours. 

Now  readers  of  "  Uric  Acid  "  already  know  that 
every  rise  of  acidity  is  accompanied  or  followed  by 
a  rise  of  urea.  And  we  gather  from  works  on 
physiological  chemistry  that  the  rise  of  acidity 
which  sugar  produces  is  due  to  the  effects  of  lactic 
and  butyric  fermentation  in  the  alimentary  canal. 

This,  no  doubt,  also  accounts  for  the  bad  name 
which  sugar  has  had  for  many  years  as  a  producer 
of  gout  and  rheumatism ;  though  we  can  now  see 
that  sugar  merely  produced  these  troubles  indirectly 
by  its  effects  on  acidity  and  the  solubility  of  uric 
acid,  and  that,  if  uric  acid  supplies  are  kept  low, 
while  the  supply  of  fresh  vegetables  and  fruits  is 
good,  sugar  can  do  no  harm.  In  a  word,  the 
trouble  with  sugar  has  arisen  from  associating  it 
with  animal  flesh ;  while  taken  with  plenty  of 
vegetables  and  fruits  it  is  harmless.  The  rise  of 
acidity  shown  in  our  figure  would  do  no  harm  to  a 
frugivore,  but  in  a  flesh-eater  it  might  precipitate 
an  arthritis. 


20 


DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 


And  this  rise  in  acidity  was  probably  due  to  the 
sugar,   as   normally  the  rise  in  the  acidity  of   the 


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12 
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Fig.  5. — Effects  of  an  acid  on  the  excretion  of  urea  and  of  acid. 

urine  does  not  begin  till  10.0  a.m.,   and   when   it 
begins  it  generally  continues  to  rise  slowly  all  the 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     21 

way  to  2.0  or  3.0  p.m.  (see  "  Uric  Acid,"  fig.  3), 
but  this  rise,  beginning  at  9.10  a.m.,  does  not 
increase  in  the  two  following  hours. 

Now  fig.  5  shows  a  similar  curve,  in  which  at  9.23 
Vf[x.  of  dilute  acetic  acid  were  taken,  and  this  is 
followed  by  a  break  in  the  downward  trend  of  the 
urea  curve  which,  however,  again  falls  rapidly  to 
8"5  grains  in  the  hour  ending  12.23. 

Below  the  urea  curve  is  the  acidity  curve,  and 
this  does  not  at  once  rise  after  the  acid  is  taken,  but 
in  the  hour  ending  11.23  there  is  a  decided  rise, 
and  this  is  not  due  to  the  normal  rise  at  that  hour, 
because  it  does  not  continue  to  rise  in  the  hour 
ending  12.23. 

I  take  it,  therefore,  that  the  rise  at  11.23  was  due 
to  the  acetic  acid,  and  that  the  acidity  (looking  to 
the  rapid  fall  of  urea  from  14  to  8*5  grains  in  about 
four  hours)  would  have  fallen  further  at  10.23  but 
for  the  acid  taken,  and  that  this  acid  affected  the 
blood  before  its  full  effect  became  visible  in  the 
urine,  and  the  rise  of  urea  was  the  effect  of  the  acid 
on  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  But  it  may  be  said, 
how  was  it  that  with  a  small  rise  of  acid  of  ^  grain 
in  fig.  4,  there  was  a  rise  of  3  grains  in  urea,  while 
with  a  rise  of  about  1  grain  of  acid  in  fig.  5  there 
was  a  rise  of  probably  less  than  2  grains  of  urea  ? 

But  as  already  shown  in  "  Uric  Acid,"  pp.  340  and 
542,  the  rise  of  urea  that  follows  the  taking  of  an 
acid  or  a  rise  of  acidity   otherwise  caused,  is  not 


iSia  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  I 

proportional  to  that  rise  of  acidity,  but  rather  to 
the  condition  of  the  blood  and  tissues  when  the 
acid  is  taken  and  the  rise  of  acidity  affects  them . 

And  I  have  also  shown  in  *'  Uric  Acid,"  prev.  refs., 
that  a  rise  of  acidity  causes  a  rise  of  urea,  because 
it  clears  the  blood  of  uric  acid  which  probably  in 
colloidal  form  is  obstructing  the  peripheral  capillary 
circulation  and  preventing  both  the  ready  access  of 
the  blood  albumens  to  the  tissues,  and  the  removal 
of  waste  products  from  these  ;  and  that  the  rise  of 
urea  which  results  is  proportional,  not  so  much  to 
the  greatness  of  the  rise  of  acidity,  but  rather  to  the 
condition  of  the  tissues  at  the  time  of  the  rise  of 
acidity. 

That  is  to  say,  the  longer  the  tissue  circulation 
has  been  exposed  to  the  obstructing  influence  of 
colloid  uric  acid  the  greater  may  be  the  accumula- 
tion of  waste  products  in  those  tissues  and  the 
greater  will  be  the  rise  of  urea  when  the  circulation 
through  them  is  once  more  freed.  In  illustration 
of  this  point  I  have  remarked  that  while  the  rise  of 
urea  that  follows  the  clearing  of  the  blood  of  uric 
acid  in  physiological  conditions,  is  only,  as  seen  in 
these  figures,  a  matter  of  a  few  grains ;  when  the 
blood  is  cleared  of  uric  acid  in  Bright's  disease, 
where  the  obstruction  to  the  circulation  is  both 
greater  and  more  lasting,  urea  may  rise  as  much 
as  a  hundred  grains  in  a  day. 

Hence  I  conclude  that  the  difference  in  the  extent 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     23 

of  the  rise  of  urea  in  figs.  4  and  5  may  be  due  to 
some  difference  in  the  quantity  of  waste  products 
available  in  the  tissues,  and  in  conformity  with  this, 
we  see  that  urea  was  only  faUing  rather  slowly  as 
the  result  of  the  fast  in  fig.  4,  while  at  the  same 
hours  in  fig.  5  it  was  falling  very  quickly  indeed, 
and  my  notes  of  the  day  corresponding  to  fig.  5 
show  that  it  was  the  day  following  a  large  excretion 
of  urea  after  exercise,  so  that  it  is  possible  that  the 
muscles  were  on  this  day  rather  poor  both  in  stores 
of  albumens  and  of  waste  products,  and  so  the  rise 
of  acidity  produced  relatively  little  effect. 

I  have  gone  at  length  into  this  question  of  the 
effects  of  uric  acid  on  circulation,  nutrition  and 
excretion  of  urea,  because  we  here  come  in  sight  of 
our  second  great  and  important  factor  in  nutrition, 
strength  and  power  of  endurance. 

Our  first  factor,  of  which  we  have  so  far  been 
talking,  is  a  sufficient  supply  of  albumens  in  a 
digestible  form,  to  introduce  into  the  blood  stream 
sufficient  albumens  to  produce  in  the  tissues  urea  to 
the  extent  of  3*5  grains  per  lb.  of  body  weight  per 
day,  and  the  corresponding  amount  of  force. 

We  can  now  see  that  our  second  factor  is  the 
possibility  of  a  satisfactory  circulation  through  the 
tissues,  bringing  these  albumens  to  the  tissues  and 
removing  the  corresponding  waste  products. 

And  this,  as  we  can  now  also  see,  is  dependent 
on  the  absence  of  any  excess  of  uric  acid  from  the 
blood  stream. 


24  DIET   AND    FOOD — CHAPTER    I 

From  which  it  follows  that,  as  some  sources  of 
albumens,  such  as  animal  flesh  of  all  kinds,  contain 
either  uric  acid  or  substances  equivalent  to  it,  such 
as  the  xanthins,  these  sources  of  albumen  must  be 
ruled  out,  for  the  blood  cannot  be  kept  properly 
free  from  this  substance  while  it  is  being  continually 
introduced  with  every  mouthful  that  is  swallowed  ; 
and,  if  the  blood  is  not  kept  fairly  free  from  this 
substance,  the  circulation  will  not  be  that  best  suited 
to  the  production  of  strength  and  endurance.  A 
fact  of  which  we  shall  see  some  practical  proofs 
further  on. 

But  to  return  to  figs.  4  and  5, 1  give  them  to  show 
that  the  effect  of  1  oz.  of  sugar  (containing  no  albu- 
mens) on  the  excretion  of  urea,  is  very  slight  compared 
with  the  effect  of  1  oz.  of  cheese,  and  that  this  small 
effect  is  probably  indirect  and  due  to  the  sugar  alter- 
ing the  alkalinity  of  the  blood  and  so  affecting  the 
circulation  in  the  tissues  and  the  removal  of  waste 
products  from  them. 

We  have  thus  far  learned,  then,  that  the  produc- 
tion of  force  requires  :  — 

(1)  A  sufficient  supply  of  albumens  in  a  digestible 
form. 

(2)  A  satisfactory  interstitial  circulation  of  the 
blood  to  carry  these  albumens  to  the  tissues  and 
remove  waste  products,  and  to  make  this  possible 
the  blood  must  contain  little  or  no  uric  acid  or 
similar  substances,  such  as  the  xanthins. 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA      25 

Before  I  leave  the  subject,  illustrated  by  the  above 
figures  of  urea  excretion,  I  wi\\  just  point  out  that : — 
A  small  quantity  of  milk,  cheese,  or  any  food  of 
similar  albumen  value  causes  a  feeling  that  hunger 
is  sated  as  the  urea  rises,  and  the  feeling  of  hunger 
begins  to  return  again  as  urea  falls ;  but  if  a  food 
poor  in  albumen  is  taken,  such  as  fruit,  though  in 
much  larger  bulk  than  the  milk  or  cheese,  there  is  a 
feeling  of  fulness,  but  hunger  is  not  sated  and  there 
is  little  or  no  rise  of  urea.  So  that  the  feeling  of 
hunger  is  to  a  large  extent  a  measure  of  the  want  of 
albumens  in  the  body,  and  this  can  be  sated  only  by 
albuminous  food,  and  1  oz.  of  cheese  is  worth  in 
albumens  more  than  10  times  its  weight  of  fruit,  so 
that  hunger  is  not  a  matter  of  mere  bulk. 

Similarly,  if  sufficient  albuminous  food  is  taken, 
but  something  upsets  digestion,  there  is  little  or  no 
rise  of  urea,  no  increasing  feeling  of  strength  and 
power,  but  rather  a  feeling  of  languor  and  debihty 
with  desire  to  keep  quiet. 

But  good  digestion  is  accompanied,  so  long  as 
urea  is  rising,  by  feelings  of  strength  and  power 
and  a  desire  to  be  up  and  doing,  so  that  it  is  quite 
possible  to  tell  whether  digestion  is  good,  bad,  in- 
different or  nil,  by  these  feelings  alone. 

Thus  it  is  not  uncommon  to  meet  with  people 
who,  soon  after  eating  a  hearty  meal  start  for  some 
exercise,  but  within  half  an  hour  are  found  in  a 
condition  bordering  on  collapse  at  the  side  of  the 


26  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   I 

road ;  and  if  you  ask  them,  they  will  tell  you  that 
they  have  an  intense  feeling  of  emptiness  referred  to 
the  epigastrium,  as  if  all  their  good  meal  recently 
eaten  had  given  them  the  slip. 

What  has  happened  here  ?  Merely  this,  that  the 
exercise  has  been  too  much  for  gastric  digestion, 
v^hich  has  been  suspended,  so  that  though  the 
stomach  is  full,  there  is  no  absorption  of  albumens 
into  the  circulation,  no  rising  urea,  and  no  force 
available  ;  and  so  in  spite  of  a  full  stomach  they  have 
a  feeling  of  more  or  less  intense  emptiness,  which 
shows  merely  that  the  blood  is  poorly  supplied  with 
nutritive  albumens,  and  we  find  that  urea  is  falling, 
or  at  least,  not  rising. 

A  little  rest  puts  matters  right,  the  stomach 
circulation  is  restored,  digestion  goes  on,  albumen 
is  absorbed  and  urea  formed,  and  the  man  gets  up 
and  walks  perhaps  quite  well  for  twenty  miles, 
making  almost  as  good  use  of  his  meal  as  if  nothing 
had  occurred. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  that  the 
temporary  suspension  of  digestion  may  allow  fer- 
mentative, putrefactive,  and  other  processes  to 
take  place  in  the  food  mass,  which  continue  and 
put  digestion  out  for  hours,  days  or  weeks  after- 
wards. 

A  similar  suspension  of  digestion,  absorption  and 
urea  formation  may  be  produced,  with  exactly 
similar  results,  by  other    disturbing   influences  be- 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     27 

sides  exercise,  such  as  the  circulation  changes  pro- 
duced by  the  rush  of  a  quantity  of  uric  acid  into 
the  blood,  producing,  as  I  have  elsewhere  explained 
{"  Uric  Acid,"  prev.  ref.,  p.  251),  obstructive  con- 
gestion of  the  w^hole  digestive  circulation,  and  so 
imperfection  or  suspension  of  gastric  digestion,  and 
the  other  results  above  mentioned. 

And  this  is  the  causation  of  the  gastric  upset  and 
vomiting,  of  the  severe  uric  acid  storm  (or  bilious 
attack,  so  called)  and  of  the  more  or  less  sudden 
feelings  of  emptiness  in  cases  of  glycosuria  and 
diabetes,  associated  with  such  and  similarly  caused 
circulation  troubles  and  their  effects  on  digestion. 

As  the  readers  of  "  Uric  Acid  "  already  know, 
every  rise  of  uric  acid  in  the  blood  and  urine  is 
accompanied  by  a  fall  in  urea,  which  is  no  doubt 
partly  due  to  defective  circulation  and  metabolism 
in  the  muscles  and  other  important  tissues,  the 
reverse  effect  to  that  shown  in  fig.  5,  and  also 
partly  to  defective  circulation  and  digestion  in  the 
stomach,  and  consequent  diminished  absorption  of 
albumen  into  the  blood. 

But  if  even  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth, or  eighteenth  hours  no  food  is  taken,  urea 
often  begins  to  rise  a  little,  and  with  this  there 
comes  a  feeling  of  increased  strength  and  powder 
and  the  emptiness  passes  off  or  is  greatly  lessened. 

This  means,  I  believe,  that  the  body  has  begun  to 
feed  on  its  own  tissues,  and  that  there  is  a  rise  of 


28  DIET   AND   FOOD— CHAPTER   I 

urea  and  of  energy  from  this  source  ;  but  prolong 
the  fast  for  twenty-four  to  thirty-six  hours  and 
there  is  now  a  distinct  loss  of  weight,  as  in  the  boy 
above  mentioned,  who  was  put  on  a  diet  deficient  in 
albumens ;  and  this  represents  the  albumen  neces- 
sary to  raise  urea  and  produce  the  force  required 
for  the  bodily  functions,  in  the  absence  of  supplies 
from  without. 

And  this  loss  we  know  will  be  continued  for 
weeks  and  weeks,  and  sufficient  albumen  will  be 
taken  each  day  to  keep  the  chief  functions  of  the 
body  from  coming  to  a  standstill,  and  a  corre- 
sponding amount  of  urea  will  be  excreted. 

We  may  sum  up  the  main  points  in  the  physi- 
ology of  the  subject  by  saying  that  the  first 
requisite  for  strength  and  power  of  endurance  is 
a  satisfactory  and  sufficient  supply  of  albumens, 
that  the  body  depends  for  these  chiefly  on  the 
foods  taken  from  day  to  day,  but  that  there  is  also 
a  small  store  of  these  substances  in  certain  tissues 
which  becomes  available  for  use  if  prolonged  exer- 
tion is  called  for  in  the  absence  of  food  ;  and  further 
that,  beyond  this  point  in  continued  starvation, 
certain  definite  quantities  of  the  tissues  them- 
selves are  daily  absorbed  to  produce  the  necessary 
albumens  and  urea. 

My  results  are  thus  in  complete  accord  with  the 
teachings  of  those  physiologists,  who  say  that 
albumen  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  a  diet  that  sustains 


PHYSIOLOGY  OF  ALBUMEN  AND  UREA     29 

life ;  and  my  researches,  some  of  which  I  have 
published  in  "Uric  Acid  "  (prev.  ref.,  p.  741),  show 
that  the  excretion  of  urea  bears  a  definite  relation  to 
the  force  produced,  and  that  a  diet  on  which  urea  is 
at  or  below  2*5  grains  per  pound  of  body  weight  per 
day  will  not  suffice  to  produce  much  force,  in  spite 
of  a  liberal  allowance  of  sugar,  starch  and  fat. 

Force  is  thus  in  all  directions  proportional  to  urea, 
whether  gauged  from  hour  to  hour  or  day  to  day. 

And  the  second  requisite  is  a  free  circulation 
through  the  tissues  to  bring  the  albumens  to  them 
and  remove  their  waste  products,  and  this  circula- 
tion is  only  possible  in  the  comparative  absence  of 
uric  acid  from  the  blood  stream ;  this  absence 
explaining  the  rise  of  urea  in  fig.  5,  and  the  still 
more  marked  rise  if  the  blood  can  be  cleared  of 
uric  acid  in  Bright's  disease. 


30 


CHAPTEK  II. 

Physiology  and  Pathology  of  Fatigue. 

From  what  has  alread}^  been  said  we  gather  that 
fatigue,  that  is,  the  inabihty  to  produce  force, 
may  be  due  to  two  causes :  (1)  a  general  dearth  of 
albumens  in  the  blood,  and  (2)  a  condition  in  the 
blood  which  leads  to  its  defective  circulation  through 
the  tissues,  so  that  though  the  blood  contains  suffi- 
cient albumens  the  tissues  cannot  readily  obtain 
them,  and  also  the  tissues  become,  as  the  result  of 
their  activity,  laden  with  waste  products,  which  are 
not  sufficiently  quickly  removed. 

It  will  be  well  to  go  somewhat  deeper  into  this 
causation  of  fatigue,  so  as  to  obtain  the  power  of 
distinguishing  in  practical  experience,  between  the 
fatigue  which  is  due  to  the  first,  and  that  which  is 
due  to  the  second  condition. 

Now  the  fatigue  which  is  due  to  dearth  of  albu- 
mens in  the  blood  is  always  absent  so  long  as  suffi- 
cient food  is  taken  and  digested ;  in  the  condition 
of  dyspepsia  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter  it 
was  not  digested  :  so  that,  if  a  man  in  any  trial  of 
endurance  drops  out  while  supplied  with  sufficient 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY   OF   FATIGUE        31 

albumens  and  apparently  digesting  them,  we  may- 
be sure  that  his  fatigue  is  not  due  to  (1),  but  by 
exclusion  is  probably  due  to  (2). 

And  practically,  apart  from  digestive  acci- 
dents, the  fatigue  which  is  due  to  dearth  of 
albumens  does  not  occur,  till  some  four  or  five 
hours  after  a  meal,  and  till  urea  has  begun  to  fall 
very  considerably  below  the  level  of  17  grains  per 
hour,  as  shown  in  figs.  2  and  3  for  instance. 

So  that,  if  a  man,  who  has  had  a  sufficient  supply 
of  albumens  put  in,  and  has  a  good  digestion,  yet 
falls  out  in  the  early  stage  of  a  contest,  long  before 
those  albumens  can  be  exhausted,  we  must  conclude, 
that  his  fatigue  is  due  to  uric  acid  in  the  blood,  and 
may  proceed  further  to  identify  this  condition  by 
•considering  its  concomitant  signs  and  symptoms. 

As  will  appear  from  my  consideration  of  this 
subject  in  "  Uric  Acid  "  (prev.  ref.,  p.  341),  there  is, 
in  addition  to  the  feeling  of  powerlessness  in  the 
limbs,  a  feeling  of  chilliness,  with  coldness  of  skin 
and  extremities,  and  a  fall  of  the  surface  tempera- 
ture, but  the  temperature  in  the  rectum  will  be 
raised  and  separated  more  than  usually  from  the 
surface  temperature  (sign  of  excess  of  uric  acid  in 
the  blood) :  similarly,  and  for  the  same  reason  the 
general  blood  pressure  will  be  raised,  the  diameter 
of  the  radial  artery  increased,  and  the  sounds  of 
the  heart  altered.  Under  this  condition,  if  a  white 
spot  is  made  by  pressure  with  the  finger-tip  on  the 


32  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

back  of  the  hand,  the  colour  will  take  from  2  to  3 
seconds  or  more  to  return  ;  while  where  there  is  no 
excess  of  uric  acid  in  the  blood,  it  may  only  take 
from  1^  to  2  seconds.^ 

Now  these  are  all  effects  of  one  and  the  same 
cause,  defective  capillary  circulation,  which  can  be 
seen  on  the  back  of  the  hand,  affecting  especially 
the  temperature  of  surfaces  and  extremities,  but 
affecting  also  the  general  circulation  of  the  whole 
body,  raising  the  blood  pressure  and  influencing  the 
action  of  the  heart. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  man,  who  suffers  from 
fatigue  owing  to  deficiency  of  albumens,  will  not 
suffer  from  coldness  nearly  so  much  ;  will  have  but 
little  difference  between  surface  and  deep  tempera- 
tures, and  little  if  any  slowing  of  the  capillary 
reflux  on  the  back  of  the  hand ;  will  not  have 
a  general  rise  of  blood  pressure  with  increased 
diameter  of  the  arteries,  or  much  alteration  of  the 
sounds  of  the  heart. 

This  man  is  all  right  in  himself,  but  supplies  have 
merely  run  short ;  give  him  fresh  albumens,  and 
a  little  time  (as  we  see  from  fig.  1  is  required) 
to  digest  them,  and  he  will  promptly  be  himself 
again  ;  or  even  a  little  rest  without  any  fresh  albu- 
mens will  enable  him  to  draw  on  his  reserves  and 
tissue  albumens,  and  he  will  be  able  to  go  on  once 
more. 

'  See  British  Medical  Journal,  Oct.,  1899. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY  OF   FATIGUE        33 

Far  different  is  the  case  of  the  other  man,  for 
even  if  you  supply  him  with  albumens  it  will  do  but 
little  good,  he  has  already  sufficient  in  his  blood,  but 
they  cannot  get  to  the  tissues,  and,  owing  to  the 
general  defective  circulation,  his  digestion  of  any 
new  albumens  will  be  as  slow  as  all  his  other 
physiological  processes. 

To  supply  him  with  fresh  food  may  merely  add  to 
his  troubles  by  starting  dyspepsia,  if  not  putrefac- 
tion, in  his  digestive  organs,  and  presently  he  may 
vomit  all  the  fresh  supplies  almost  untouched  by 
digestion. 

To  get  this  man  once  more  into  a  condition  to 
proceed  may  be  a  matter  of  hours,  possibly  days, 
and  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  clear  the  uric  acid  out 
of  the  blood,  and  if  this  can  be  done,  and  as  soon  as 
it  is  done,  there  will  be  a  rise  of  urea  and  a  return 
of  power  without  any  fresh  food  having  been  given  : 
this  further  illustrating  the  points  already  men- 
tioned in  reference  to  figs.  4  and  5. 

Now  the  best  way  to  clear  the  blood  of  uric  acid 
is,  as  we  see  from  the  above  figures,  to  give  acids, 
acid  wines,  acid  fruits,  in  fact  acid  in  any  form  most 
likely  to  be  absorbed  from  the  stomach  ;  or  calomel, 
or  other  metals  that  form  insoluble  compounds  with 
uric  acid,  as  pointed  out  in  previous  writings ;  but 
as  the  whole  object  of  this  book  is  to  show  that,  with 
proper  care  in  selecting  our  sources  of  albumen,  this 
fatigue  from  uric  acid  collaemia  and  the  obstructed 


34  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

circulation  it  produces  need  not  occur,  I  shall  not 
here  go  further  into  the  treatment  of  the  condition 
by  means  of  acids  and  drugs. 

But  while  speaking  of  this,  I  will  again  point  out 
that,  though  the  albuminous  foods  are  those  that 
really  control  the  situation,  other  foods  may  have 
effects  which  may  easily  appear  to  others  to  be  of 
more  importance  than  they  really  are. 

Thus,  though  in  fig.  4  the  effect  of  1  oz.  of  sugar 
is  very  small  compared  with  that  of  1  oz.  of  cheese, 
any  one  who  had  taken  the  sugar  would  say  that 
they  felt  distinctly  stronger  and  better  for  it ;  and 
so  they  would  be,  while  acidity  ■  and  urea  were 
rising,  partly  because  some  albumen  was  indirectly 
rendered  available  for  force  production,  and  partly 
because  the  amount  of  uric  acid  in  the  blood  was 
diminished  and  the  circulation  improved. 

But  this  would  equally  be  the  case  if  the  rise  of 
acidity  was  produced  by  an  acid  containing  no  food 
elements  whatever  (see  fig.  5)  ;  so  that  while  I  do 
not  say  that  carbohydrates,  oils  and  fats,  have  no 
effect  on  nutrition,  and  am  not  discussing  their 
effects  on  the  production  of  force  in  other  forms, 
such  as  heat,  I  do  say  that  their  effect  on  the  pro- 
duction of  force  and  activity,  and  the  excretion  of 
urea,  is  slight  and  indirect,  and  may  for  the  present 
be  neglected,  with  the  object  of  making  clearer  and 
more  useful  our  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  the 
albumens. 


PHYSIOLOGY   AND    PATHOLOGY   OF   FATIGUE        35 

In  SO  far  as  I  propose  to  point  out  that  those, 
who  are  free  from  great  excess  of  uric  acid  in  the 
blood,  are  also  free  from  the  above-described  more 
severe  and  intractable  form  of  fatigue,  I  must  at  the 
same  time  not  forget  to  mention  that  the  difference 
between  those  who  suffer  and  those  who  do  not 
suffer,  is  one  of  degree  only,  and  that  all  have  some 
uric  acid  in  the  blood,  and  are  similarly  influenced 
by  acids  and  other  drugs  which  clear  it  out  of  the 
circulation. 

In  those  who  have  no  available  excess  of  uric  acid 
in  the  body  and  blood,  an  acid,  or  an  acid-forming 
food,  introduced  into  the  stomach  will  at  once  be 
absorbed  and  clear  out  any  uric  acid  there  may  be 
in  the  blood  ;  but  in  those  who  are  full  of  uric  acid 
from  head  to  foot,  digestion  and  absorption  are  as 
much  upset  by  the  large  quantity  of  uric  acid  in 
the  blood,  as  is  muscular  circulation,  skin  circula- 
tion and  general  metabolism,  and  then  the  con- 
dition is  difficult  or  impossible  to  cure,  as  food  and 
drugs  introduced  into  the  stomach  may  quite  fail  to 
be  absorbed  ;  uric  acid  collaemia  is  a  curable  con- 
dition in  the  one  case,  but  more  or  less  incurable  in 
the  other,  at  least  for  a  time. 

I  have  also  pointed  out  in  '*  Uric  Acid,"  that  by 
watching  urea  excretion  during  exercise  it  is  possible 
to  tell  at  once  whether  fatigue  is  coming  early,  and 
whether  that  fatigue  is  due  to  excess  of  uric  acid  ; 
for   exercise  generally  causes,    as   we  have   seen,  a 


36  DIET   AND  FOOD — CHAPTER  II 

rise  of  urea ;  but  if  there  is  much  uric  acid  in  the 
blood,  the  beginning  of  the  exercise  will  lead  to  a 
fall  of  urea  in  place  of  a  rise,  and  then  more  or  less 
severe  fatigue  soon  comes  on. 

Now  this  fatigue  can  be  prevented,  as  I  am  going 
to  show,  by  means  of  suitable  diet  providing  the 
necessary  albumens,  without  the  unnecessary  uric 
acid,  and  it  can,  as  already  pointed  out  in  "Uric 
Acid,"  be  prevented  by  previously  clearing  out  all 
the  available  uric  acid ;  e.g.  by  a  course  of  salicylate 
which  is  left  off  on  the  day  of  exercise,  or  by  giving 
acids,  mercury,  &c.,  to  temporarily  clear  the  blood 
at  the  time  of  exercise  ;  in  fact  it  matters  not  how 
you  clear  the  blood  of  uric  acid,  so  long  as  you  do 
clear  it,  and  keep  it  clear  during  the  exercise. 

It  has  also  been  pointed  out  that  exercise  brings 
excess  of  uric  acid  into  the  blood  by  causing  the 
elimination  of  acids  in  perspiration  ;  thus  diminish- 
ing the  acidity  of  the  urine  and  increasing  the 
alkalinity  of  the  blood  ;  thus  rendering  it  a  better 
solvent  of  uric  acid,  so  that  it  will  dissolve  more 
of  the  uric  acid  available  in  the  tissues. 

In  a  word,  exercise  acts  like  a  dose  of  alkali,  and 
reverses  the  effects  which  we  have  seen  to  be  pro- 
duced by  acids,  hence  in  those  who  have  plenty  of 
available  uric  acid,  heat  and  fatigue  are  contem- 
poraneous, and  almost  synonymous  ;  but  in  those 
who  are  free  from  excess  of  uric  acid,  heat  and 
perspiration  have  little  or  no  bad  effect. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY   OF   FATIGUE        37 

Hence  the  records  we  are  now  getting  from  all 
sides  show  that  the  less  animal  flesh  a  people  take 
the  better  do  they  come  out  in  trials  of  force  pro- 
duction, and  especially  in  endurance.  As  regards 
force  production,  those  having  equivalent  quantities 
of  albumen  available  from  any  source,  animal  or 
vegetable,  will  be  equal  to  each  other  :  but  in 
endurance  those  will  do  best  who  get  their  albumens 
from  such  animal  and  vegetable  sources  as  are  prac- 
tically free  from  uric  acid,  and  who  do  not  indulge 
in  such  stimulant  poisons  as  tea,  coffee,  and  other 
similar  alkaloid-containing  substances. 

Now  so  far  as  I  know^  the  ''vegetarians  "  of  this 
country  are  pretty  decidedly  superior  in  endurance 
to  those  who  feed  on  animal  tissues,  and  who  might 
otherwise  be  expected  to  equal  them  ;  but  these 
"  vegetarians  "  would  be  better  still,  as  I  have  for 
some  years  been  pointing  out,  if  they  not  only 
ruled  out  animal  flesh,  but  also  eggs,  and  the  pulses 
(peas,  beans  and  lentils)  which  contain  a  large 
amount  of  uric  acid,  or  substances  physiologically 
equivalent  to  uric  acid  ;  also  tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa. 

It  also  follows  absolutely  from  what  I  have  said, 
that  meat  is  a  stimulant  because  of  the  acid  salts 
it  contains,  for  uric  acid  itself  is  a  stimulant,  as 
may  be  demonstrated  for  anyone  by  swallowing 
a  few  grains  of  it,  and  it  is  the  chief  stimulant  in 
beef-tea  soups  and  meat  extracts,  and  other  deadly 
decoctions  of  flesh.     Meat  also  contains  a  supply  of 


38  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

easily  digested  albumens,  and  the  effect  of  swallow- 
ing animal  flesh  is,  that  digestion  is  stimulated  and 
circulation  improved  by  the  acids  and  acid  salts,  so 
that  the  albumens  are  quickly  digested  and  rendered 
available  ;  as  the  result  of  these  two  causes,  the 
happy  owner  of  a  portion  of  flesh  is  sooner  in  a 
position  to  evolve  large  quantities  of  force  than 
the  man  who  gets  his  albumen — perhaps  exactly 
the  same  in  amount  —  from  a  less  stimulating 
source. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  picture,  for  in 
so  far  as  this  effect  of  flesh  is  due  to  stimulation, 
that  stimulation  will  come  to  an  end,  just  as  we 
see  in  fig.  5  that  the  rise  of  urea  after  an  acid 
comes  to  an  end,  and  is  followed  by  a  fall  which 
is  rapid  and  decided,  and  as  the  albumens  of  flesh 
are  thus  rapidly  available,  it  follows  that,  other 
things,  such  as  quantity,  being  equal,  the  albumens 
provided  from  flesh  are  more  quickly  available,  but 
also  more  quickly  worked  off  and  dissipated,  than 
those  having  a  less  stimulating  origin  in  cheese  or 
vegetables ;  though  a  somew^hat  similar  effect  can 
be  produced  by  eating  acid  fruits  and  vegetables 
along  with  cheese,  milk,  &c. 

It  follows  from  this  that  a  meal  of  meat,  as  com- 
pared with  a  meal,  of  say  milk,  cheese  and  bread, 
equally  rich  in  albumens,  is  like  the  force  in  an 
explosive  oil,  as  compared  with  the  same  amount 
of  force  in  a  slow  burning  oil. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY   OF  FATIGUE        39 

And  the  man  who  has  dined  on  flesh,  though 
possibly  more  hvely  and  energetic  at  first,  will  find 
himself  at  the  end  of  both  his  stimulation  and  his 
available  albumens,  and  faced  by  rapidly  falling 
urea  and  increasing  fatigue,  some  time  before  his 
opponent,  who  got  a  precisely  similar  allowance  of 
albumen  from  other  sources. 

Stimulation  is  not  strength,  but  force  rendered 
a  little  more  quickly  available  ;  and  it  is  always 
followed  (and  must  be  so)  by  an  exactly  correspond- 
ing amount  of  depression,  when  the  force  used  up 
is  not  available,  and  has  to  be  replaced. 

The  man  also  who  had  the  meat  and  had  his 
blood  temporarily  cleared  of  uric  acid  as  the  result 
of  its  acid  stimulation,  has  not  got  rid  of  that  uric 
acid  ;  but  it  is  waiting  in  his  body  and  will  return 
in  increased  quantity  into  his  blood  as  soon  as  the 
rise  of  acidity  and  stimulation  comes  to  an  end  ; 
hence  this  man  may,  some  time  before  his  next 
meal,  have  an  excess  of  uric  acid  in  his  blood  and 
suffer  from  fatigue  as  a  result  of  this  also,  while  his 
milk,  cheese,  and  bread  eating  opponent,  having  less 
uric  acid  to  return  into  his  blood,  will  escape. 

I  think  that  this  action  of  meat,  as  a  stimulant 
and  producer  of  quickly  worked  off  force,  has  a  good 
deal  to  say  to  the  fact  that,  as  we  have  come  to  eat 
more  and  more  meat,  we  have  also  come  to  have  a 
larger  and  larger  number  of  meals  in  the  day ;  and 
now  while  the  bread,  cheese  and  vegetable  feeder 


40  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

can  do  well  on  two,  or  at  most  three,  meals  a  day, 
the  flesh  feeders  often  take  four,  or  perhaps  five. 

It  follows  also,  that  quite  an  exaggerated  and 
erroneous  estimate  has  been  formed  of  the  power 
of  meat  to  produce  force,  because  its  stimulating 
effect  has  been  mistaken  for  power,  and  the  de- 
pression which  follows  has  either  been  overlooked, 
which  is  possible  at  first,  or  later,  has  been  counter- 
acted by  alcohol,  tobacco  and  other  more  harmful 
stimulants ;  but  the  man  who  gets  his  albumens 
from  a  less  stimulating  source,  having  no  early 
stimulation,  has  also  no  subsequent  depression, 
and  so  probably  never  feels  the  want  of  any  alcohol 
at  all. 

Hence  it  comes  about  that  those  who  took  alcohol 
on  a  flesh  diet  generally  very  soon  give  it  up  when 
they  give  up  flesh,  and  smoke  also  very  little,  having 
no  craving  for  any  stimulant ;  while  if  what  most 
meat-eaters  say  was  true,  namely  that  meat  is  very 
much  better  nourishment  and  more  supporting  than 
milk,  bread,  cheese,  fruit  and  vegetables,  it  ought 
to  be  exactly  the  other  way,  and  those  who  live 
on  the  latter  foods  should  require  to  take  alcohol, 
and  be  unable  to  do  without  it. 

Another  very  common  effect  of  meat  eating, 
whether  alcohol  is  added  to  it  or  not,  is  a  certain 
amount  of  dulness,  heaviness  and  disinclination  for 
mental  or  bodily  exertion  in  the  morning  hours, 
often  associated  with  more  or  less  irritability  and 
mental  depression. 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY  OF   FATIGUE        41 

In  fact  the  meat  eater  is  never  quite  himself  or 
to  be  seen  at  his  best  till  the  evening,  when  rising 
acidity  clears  his  blood  for  a  time  from  excess  of 
uric  acid ;  and  this  is,  I  think,  at  least  one  of  the 
factors  that  has  caused  our  morning  and  evening 
hours  to  grow  progressively  later  and  later,  as  we 
have  come  to  live  more  in  towns,  and  eat  more 
meat. 

It  is  misery  to  rise  in  the  morning  hours  if  you 
feel  dull,  depressed,  and  unrefreshed;  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  prolong  the  evening  conviviality  when  you  feel 
bright,  and  by  contrast  even  cheerful.  Few^  or  none 
realise  that  a  multitude  of  such  minor  sorrows  are 
the  direct  results  of  their  habits  of  life. 

We  see  then,  that  there  are  two  forms  of  fatigue, 
one  due  to  absence  of  albumens  from  the  blood, 
because  albuminous  foods  are  deficient,  and  one  due 
to  absence  of  albumens  from  the  muscular  tissues, 
because,  though  there  is  plenty  of  albumen  in  the 
blood,  the  blood  is  unable  to  get  to  the  tissues;  both 
forms  of  fatigue  are  really  due  to  the  defective  supply 
of  albumens  to  the  tissues,  but  the  latter  kind  is 
complicated  by  the  additional  source  of  weakness 
that,  the  circulation  being  defective,  waste  products 
are  not  removed  from  the  tissues,  but  remain  to 
further  hinder  their  function  and  nutrition. 

Thus  in  the  walking  race  to  be  mentioned  further 
on,  in  which  the  vegetarians  are  said  to  have 
walked    the    meat-eaters    off   their   legs,   food   was 


42  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

open  to  and  partaken  of  by  both  alike  :  but  the 
meat-eaters  had  impure  blood  so  that  they  could 
neither  digest  the  albumens,  nor  get  them  to  their 
tissues  when  digested ;  and  so  they  failed  not  from 
defective  supply  but  from  obstructed  circulation. 
Further,  the  vegetable-feeders  came  in  fresh  and 
in  good  condition,  and  the  winner  asserted  that  he 
could  have  gone  faster  if  necessary ;  but  the  only 
meat-eater  who  came  in  at  all  required  brandy  to 
revive  him. 

We  have  also  seen  that  by  means  of  diet  it  is 
possible  to  prevent  completely  the  latter  form  of 
fatigue,  leaving  the  individual  who  thus  controls  his 
diet  liable  only  to  that  form  of  fatigue  which  is  due 
to  deficient  albumen,  from  deficient  or  irregular  food 
supplies. 

I  have  for  years  been  pointing  out  in  "  Uric 
Acid"  that  other  things,  such  as  nutrition  and  the 
supply  of  albumens,  being  equal,  I  can  absolutely 
control  the  incidence  of  fatigue  by  controlling  the 
uric  acid  ;  that  I  can  prevent  fatigue  for  many  hours,, 
in  spite  of  great  heat  and  exertion,  either  by  sweep- 
ing out  beforehand  most  of  the  available  uric  acid 
by  means  of  a  solvent  such  as  a  salicylate,  or  by 
clearing  the  blood  directly  by  means  of  drugs  such 
as  acids,  opium  or  mercury,  which  clear  the  blood  of 
uric  acid  by  interfering  with  its  solubility,  which  is 
the  way  in  which  meat  acts  as  a  stimulant.  I  have 
also  pointed  out  that  these  methods  have  been  used 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY   OF   FATIGUE        43 

probably  for  thousands  and  thousands  of  years  by 
those  who  had  no  exact  knowledge  of  their  mode  of 
action,  e.g.,  opium  for  fatigue  of  men  and  horses  in 
India,  and  lemons,  &c.,  by  athletes  on  this  side  of 
the  world;  and  I  have  come  across  several  indivi- 
duals who  had  similarly  made  use  of  mercury,  or 
more  recently  of  salicylates,  for  their  effects  on  their 
mental  or  bodily  powers.  I  have  also  pointed  out 
that  exactly  the  same  effects  can  be  produced  by 
clearing  the  blood  of  uric  acid  by  means  of  diet,  and 
have  said  that  in  my  own  case  while  on  ordinary 
flesh  diet  I  might  often  be  placed  Jiors  de  combat  in 
half  an  hour  or  an  hour  by  exposure  to  heat  and 
exertion,  on  a  uric  acid  free  diet,  I  can  confidently 
reckon  on  being  able  to  produce  large  amounts  of 
force  for  at  least  three  or  four  hours,  in  spite  of 
any  heat  that  w^e  meet  with  in  this  country ;  and 
I  have  pointed  out  that  abstainers  from  flesh  all 
over  the  world  have  had  similar  experiences,  and  not 
infrequently  get  the  better  of  flesh -eating  opponents 
from  this  cause. 

I  have  pointed  oat  that  the  fatigue  which  is  pro- 
duced by  a  rush  of  uric  acid  into  the  blood  is  accom- 
panied by  an  immediate  fall  of  urea,  while  exercise 
without  such  uric  acid  in  the  blood  and  without 
fatigue,  is  accompanied  by  an  immediate  rise  of 
urea ;  and  no  doubt  it  would  thus  be  quite  easy  to 
tell  from  the  urea  excretion  of  two  athletic  com- 
petitors, which  was  going  to  fail  first. 


44  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   II 

In  myself  also  the  rise,  and  fall  of  urea,  as  shown 
in  the  previous  figures,  is  most  accurately  repre- 
sented in  one's  feelings  of  strength  or  weakness ; 
so  that  over  and  over  again  it  has  occurred  to  me 
in  making  these  and  similar  curves,  to  write  down 
my  feelings  at  the  time  and  to  find  afterwards, 
when  the  urine  had  been  collected  and  estimated 
and  the  urea  worked  out,  that  these  feelings  had 
quite  accurately  represented  the  changes  taking 
place  in  the  excretion  of  urea ;  and  anyone  who 
will  note  his  own  feelings  during  such  a  change 
in  the  excretion  of  urea,  as  is  shown  in  fig.  1  from 
1.0  p.m.  to  3.0  p.m.,  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
understanding  this. 

I  have  now  also  no  doubt  that  the  severe  collapse 
and  asthenia,  that  follows  on  attacks  of  gastric 
dyspepsia  or  gastritis  from  any  cause,  is  due  to  a 
stoppage  of  the  digestion  and  absorption  of  albu- 
mens, producing  a  corresponding  fall  in  the  pro- 
duction of  force  and  urea,  and  the  latter  would 
be  found  in  all  such  cases,  if  the  urine  was  collected 
and  examined. 

Similarly  an  injury  to  any  part  of  the  body 
which  suffices  to  cause  serious  interference  with 
gastric  digestion  will  produce  similar  asthenia  and 
fall  of  urea,  and  it  follows  also  from  our  first 
principles,  that  in  flesh-eaters  such  fall  of  urea 
will  be  the  signal  for  the  rush  of  uric  acid  into 
the  blood,   and  this  will  still   further   hamper   and 


PHYSIOLOGY  AND   PATHOLOGY  OF  FATIGUE        45 

impede  digestion,  circulation  and  nutrition  in  all 
directions,  giving  rise  to  the  more  serious  and  fatal 
complications  of  shock. 

It  follows  from  this,  also,  that  abstainers  from 
flesh  and  tea  will  have,  as  compared  with  flesh- 
eaters  and  tea-drinkers,  a  certain  relative  immunity 
from  shock  after  injury,  and  its  more  severe  and 
fatal  results ;  and  this  is,  I  think,  as  shown  by 
cases  quoted  in  "Uric  Acid"  (pp.  365  and  779), 
a  matter  of  common  observation. 

It  seems,  then,  that  there  is  overwhelming 
evidence  to  prove  that  fatigue  or  its  absence  is 
simply  a  matter  of  the  adequate  supply  of  albumen 
to  the  muscles,  and  that  this  in  turn  is  controlled 
by  two  factors  : — (1)  a  satisfactory  and  sufficient 
supply  of  albumens  in  the  blood,  and  (2)  a  free 
circulation  of  this  blood  through  the  tissues  to 
furnish  the  albumen  as  required,  and  remove 
waste  products. 

We  see  also  that  diet  places  both  these  factors 
under  our  control,  and  that  the  excretion  of  urea 
is  a  reliable  guide  to  the  results  it  produces. 


46 


CHAPTEK  III. 

Foods  Available  :  their  Properties  and 
Eelative  Importance. 

The  foods  available  are  so  numerous  that  we 
must  first  of  all  divide  them  into  classes  and 
consider  them  in  a  general  way. 

These  classes  have  one  thing  in  common,  that 
they  contain  no  uric  acid,  or  very  little  indeed 
compared  with  animal  flesh,  eggs,  or  vegetable 
substances  rich  in  alkaloids,  such  as  pulses,  tea, 
coffee  and  cocoa,  which  are,  for  the  reasons  given  in 
previous  chapters,  to  be  excluded. 

The  uric  acid  free  foods  fall  then  into  the 
following  classes  or  groups  : — 

(1)  Milk  and  milk  products,  as  cheese  and 
'*  protene." 

(2)  Bread  stuffs,  cereal  foods  and  glutens. 

(3)  Nuts  and  nut  foods. 

(4)  Garden  vegetables,  as  potatoes. 

(5)  Garden  fruits,  as  apples. 

(6)  Dried  and  foreign  fruits. 

Milk  is  one  of  the  best  of  these  available  foods, 
because  it  is  easy  and  quick  of  digestion,  and  affords. 


FOODS  AVAILABLE  47 

as  we  have  seen  in  fig.  2,  a  supply  of  albumens  and 
so  of  force  and  urea,  in  a  comparatively  short  space 
of  time. 

Many  people  believe  that  they  cannot  take  milk, 
and  there  are  undoubtedly  a  good  many  things  in 
ordinary  diet  with  which  it  does  not  go  very  well, 
as  flesh,  beer,  wine  and  tobacco ;  but  then  the  folly 
is  in  taking  these  things  at  all,  not  in  taking  the 
milk  and  leaving  them  out. 

Some  beHeve  that  they  cannot  digest  milk,  but 
this  again  generally  resolves  itself  into  taking  it 
with  improper  foods,  in  improper  quantities,  or  at 
improper  times ;  people  who,  when  they  have 
already  swallowed  a  good  and  sufficient  meal  of 
other  things,  take  down  a  tumbler  or  more  of  milk 
on  top  of  them,  are  very  likely  to  have  some 
digestive  trouble. 

Those  who  while  taking  three  or  four  good  meals 
a  day,  also  add  a  tumbler  of  milk  between  times  just 
to  keep  up  their  strength,  are  much  more  likely  to 
tire  out  their  wretched  gastric  digestion,  and  get 
dyspepsia  and  debility  as  a  result ;  but  all  this 
cannot  be  justly  charged  to  the  milk,  but  to  the 
foolish  way  in  which  it  is  taken. 

When  milk  is  treated  sensibly  as  a  most  im- 
portant food  deserves  to  be,  and  taken  at  one  or 
two  of  the  three  daily  meals,  and  generally  broken 
up  and  distributed  among  the  rest  of  the  foods,  such 
as   bread,    cereals,   vegetables  and    fruits,  it   is,    in 


48  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  III 

the  great  majority  of  cases,  easily  and  painlessly 
digested,  and  furnishes  its  proper  quantum  of 
albumens,  force  and  urea. 

Very  much  the  same  applies  to  cheese,  and  the 
bad  character  it  frequently  bears  is  much  more 
often  due  to  the  way  in  which  it  is  taken  at  the  end 
of  a  meal  already  too  heavy ;  or  in  too  large  quan- 
tity, or  insufficiently  broken  up,  rather  than  to  any 
of  its  own  good  or  bad  qualities. 

Cheese  contains  more  albumen  than  any  other  of 
the  common  foods,  and  should  be  taken  early  in 
the  meal  and  well  distributed  through  bread  stuffs 
or  vegetables  ;  it  should  be  well  broken  up  and  mas- 
ticated, and  if  hard  and  the  teeth  are  bad,  it  should 
be  grated  before  use. 

Those  living  on  a  mixed  diet  rarely  require  to 
take  more  than  2  or  3  ozs.  of  cheese  in  a  day,  that 
is  1  or  IJ  ozs.  at  two  meals,  and  I  have  never  met 
any  one  who  could  not  take  this  quantity  easily  and 
digest  it  well,  when  going  the  right  way  to  work. 

Protene  is  a  patent  substance  prepared  from  milk 
by  Protene,  Limited,  36,  Welbeck  Street,  W.,  and 
141,  Kegent  Street,  W.  It  is  said  to  be  almost  pure 
albumen,  and  my  experiments  seem  to  confirm  this 
statement. 

It  is  specially  useful  in  conditions  where  the  fat 
or  sugar  of  milk  is  not  required,  and  I  shall  have 
to  mention  it  again  in  relation  to  diet  for  special 
conditions ;    but  otherwise  its  digestion  and  use  is 


FOODS  AVAILABLE  49 

much  the  same  as  that  of  cheese  (see  previous 
remarks,  p.  16),  and  it  may  be  considered  as  contain- 
ing about  2*6  times  as  much  albumen  as  its  own 
weight  of  cheese. 

It  can  be  obtained  in  the  form  of  a  powder  which 
can  be  mixed  with  various  other  foods,  to  increase, 
if  necessary,  their  albumen  values ;  it  is  also  manu- 
factured into  bread,  gingerbread,  and  biscuits,  which 
are  convenient  and  palatable. 

Plasmon  is  a  very  similar  substance  to  Protene, 
over  which  it  has  one  advantage  that  its  solutions 
have  but  little  flavour  and  can  therefore  be  flavoured 
to  suit  any  taste.  I  thus  often  make  use  of  Plas- 
mon in  solution  when  I  wish  to  replace  milk,  and 
Protene  Biscuits  when  I  wish  to  replace  cheese, 
or  these  substances  can  be  added  to  make  up  the 
quantities  of  milk  and  cheese  when  these  are  dis- 
liked or  not  well  taken ;  but  good  milk  and  cheese 
are  in  my  opinion  always  superior  to  any  sub- 
stitutes, and  it  is  only  when  fat  or  sugar  have  to  be 
avoided,  or  when  milk  and  cheese  are  disliked,  that 
we  need  to  resort  to  them. 

Plasmon  is  to  be  obtained  from  the  Plasmon 
Syndicate,  56,  Duke  Street,  Grosvenor  Square,  W., 
and  it  can  also  be  obtained  in  the  form  of  biscuits, 
though  these  generally  contain  less  albumen  than 
those  of  Protene. 

Bread  stuffs  and  cereal  foods  are  often  the  most 
important  items  in  the  diet  list :  containing  much 
4 


50  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   III 

less  albumen  than  cheese,  they  are  eaten  in  much 
larger  quantity,  and  generally  form  the  backbone  of 
the  mixed  diets,  often  contributing  one  half  or  more 
of  the  day's  allowance  of  albumens. 

A  larger  volume  than  this  would  scarcely  suffice 
to  enumerate  their  kinds,  qualities  and  preparations, 
and  I  must  here  content  myself  with  saying  that 
they  appear  to  me,  especially  in  the  form  of  bread 
or  biscuit,  to  furnish  a  steady  and  equable  supply 
of  albumens  over  a  number  of  hours,  and  thus  to 
increase  the  powers  of  endurance  of  those  who  make 
use  of  them,  being  in  this  respect  at  the  opposite 
pole  of  nutrition  from  milk  or  meat. 

They  often  contain  a  considerable  quantity  of 
acid  or  acid  salts,  and  thus  tend  rather  to  keep  up 
the  acidity  of  the  urine,  and  may  in  conjunction 
with  other  things,  as  acid  fruits,  lead  to  some  reten- 
tion of  uric  acid,  especially  if  aided  by  the  cold 
weather  of  winter  ;  but  this  can  be  counteracted,  as 
we  shall  see  later  on,  by  eating  some  potatoes  and 
clothing  warmly. 

Biscuit  is  a  form  of  bread  stuff  which  has  some 
advantages,  for  being  dry  it  not  only  contains  more 
nourishment  in  the  same  weight,  but  it  may  be 
somewhat  better  cooked  than  bread  ;  and  being  dry 
is  an  advantage  as  regards  digestibility,  as  it  enables 
the  digestive  juices  of  the  mouth  to  penetrate  it 
more  easily. 

Thus  saliva  will  penetrate  more  easily  into  dry 


FOODS  AVAILABLE  61 

biscuit  or  toast,  less  easily  into  bread,  still  less  easily 
into  new  moist  bread,  and  only  with  great  difficulty 
slowly,  and  after  considerable  dilution,  into  bread  or 
biscuit  soaked  or  sodden  with  water  or  milk. 

I  quite  agree  also  with  Dr.  Kellogg  and  those  of 
his  school,  who  teach  the  great  importance  of  the 
complete  and  thorough  cooking  of  cereal  foods,* 
and  the  use  of  such  foods  is  often  an  additional  help 
in  severe  dyspepsia:  but  I  find  that  many  people 
can  take  ordinary  biscuits  and  cereal  foods  if  they 
are  careful  to  take  them  dry  (a  point  also  insisted 
on  by  Dr.  Kellogg),  and  that  the  complete  penetra- 
tion of  the  saliva  into  such  foods  thus  insured,  will 
in  many  people,  make  all  the  difference  between 
flatulent  dyspepsia,  and  satisfactory  and  painless 
digestion  of  cereals  :  but  I  shall  have  to  mention 
this  subject  again  in  connection  with  the  common 
causes  of  dyspepsia  (see  chap.  iv.). 

Rice,  the  staple  food  of  many  Eastern  countries, 
is  another  important  cereal  and  we  in  this  country 
have  probably  neither  treated  it  properly,  nor  appre- 
ciated it  at  its  true  value. 

Those  nations  that  live  on  it  are  careful  to  get 
good  rice,  to  cook  it  thoroughly,  and  to  have  it  as 


'  Super-cooked  cereal  foods  as  advised  by  Dr.  Kellogg  can  be 
obtained  from  the  International  Health  Association,  Ltd., 
70,  Legge  Street,  Birmingham ;  and  a  malted  bread,  called  the 
"  Veda  "  loaf,  which  is  both  pleasant  and  easy  to  digest,  can  be 
obtained  from  A.  Fenwich  and  Son,  27,  St.  John  Street,  Perth 
Scotland. 


62  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  III 

dry  as  possible  at  the  end  of  the  cooking  :  with  this 
object  they  steam  it  rather  than  boil  it,  or  if  water 
is  added  to  the  rice  it  is  all  boiled  away,  as  any 
water  poured  away  after  cooking  would  carry 
nourishment  with  it. 

I  have  been  told  also,  that  much  of  the  rice  sent  to 
this  country  is  not  that  which  is  considered  the  best 
by  the  natives  of  the  countries  where  it  is  grown,  and 
one  can  quite  understand  that  it  is  useless  to  send 
the  best  rice  to  countries  where  it  is  not  appreciated. 

Gluten  is  the  albumen  of  bread  or  flour,  and 
this  can  be  added  to  bread,  biscuits,  puddings,  or 
other  cereals  to  increase,  if  need  be,  their  albumen 
values ;  it  may  also  be  used  by  itself  in  various 
forms,  where  the  starch  of  cereals  is  not  wanted. 

Nuts  and  nut  foods  are  valuable,  because  fairly 
rich  in  albumens ;  but  they  have  the  disadvantage 
of  requiring  good  sound  teeth,  well  used,  or  they  are 
apt  to  be  indigestible.  They  often  contain  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  oil,  and  many  biscuits  and 
foods  prepared  from  them  do  not  keep  well  owing 
to  changes  in  this  oil.^ 

Nevertheless  nuts  are  by  no  means  to  be 
neglected  ;    they  form  a  large  item  in  the  diet  of 

^  Protene,  Limited,  supply  some  nut  foods  and  gluten  in  con- 
venient forms,  also  aleuronat  obtained  from  wheat,  which  may 
be  useful.  Gluten  bread,  biscuits  and  other  preparations  of 
gluten  can  also  be  obtained  from  Blatchley,  167,  Oxford  Street, 
W. ;  Callard,  65,  Eegent  Street,  W.,  or  Van  Abbott,  104, 
Wigmore  Street,  W. 


FOODS  AVAILABLE  53 

many  nations,  and  with  some  they  more  or  less 
completely  take  the  place  of  bread. 

This  is  specially  the  case  with  chestnuts,  which 
when  well  cooked  are  easily  digested  by  almost 
everyone,  and  other  nuts  can  be  passed  through  a 
nut-mill  to  aid  the  teeth  if  defective. 

Those,  who  for  one  reason  or  another  do  not  like 
milk  or  cheese,  should  remember  that  from  1  pound 
of  bread,  or  bread  stuffs  of  equal  value,  and  a  few 
ounces  of  nuts,  they  can  get  nearly  three-quarters 
of  the  albumens  they  require  for  a  day,  so  that  in 
this  way  they  may  get  on  with  very  little  milk  or 
cheese,  or  even  entirely  without  them. 

A  pound  of  bread  and  a  pound  of  the  more 
nourishing  dried  fruits  would  also  supply  the 
albumens  for  a  day's  food. 

Garden  vegetables,  as  potatoes — here  again  I  am 
obliged  to  mention  only  one  or  two  kinds  and 
some  special  points.  Speaking  generally,  garden 
vegetables  contain  only  very  little  albumen,  and  are 
of  use  to  supply  bulk,  and  to  dilute  and  break 
up  the  more  albuminous  foods,  such  as  milk  and 
cheese,  rather  than  for  their  albumens. 

Potatoes,  in  addition  to  somewhat  less  than  2  per 
cent,  of  albumens,  contribute  a  considerable  quan- 
tity of  alkali,  which  is  often  useful  to  keep  down  the 
acidity  of  the  urine  and  prevent  retention  of  uric 
acid  by  other  foods,  some  of  which,  as  the  cereals, 
have  been  mentioned  above  as  contributing  some 
excess  of  acids. 


64  DIET   AND  FOOD — CHAPTER   III 

For  this  reason  eating  a  moderate  quantity  of 
potatoes  twice  a  day  may  suffice  to  make  a  urine, 
which  tends  to  throw  out  a  little  red  sand  from  time 
to  time,  owing  to  relatively  high  acidity,  cease  to  do 
so  ;  and  those  who  suffer  in  this  way  from  eating 
acid  fruits  should  counteract  their  effects  by  taking 
a  corresponding  quantity  of  potatoes. 

Garden  fruits — here  again  I  must  pass  over  whole 
classes  with  a  word.  Most  of  our  fruits  contain  only 
a  fraction  of  1  per  cent,  of  albumens,  and  are  for 
the  most  part  equivalent  to  water  with  some  sugar 
and  salts,  and  these  salts,  as  a  rule,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  alkalies,  for,  though  they  are  often  present 
in  the  form  of  acid  tartrate  of  potash,  which  reddens 
litmus  and  acts  as  an  acid  when  first  swallowed, 
their  effect  on  the  blood  and  urine  of  a  whole  day  is 
that  of  an  alkali,  diminishing  the  acidity  of  the  urine 
and  probably  increasing  the  alkalinity  of  the  blood 
(see  "  Uric  acid,"  p.  636). 

Many  acid  fruits,  however,  act  as  acids  at  least 
for  the  first  few  hours  after  they  are  swallowed, 
and  thus  stimulate — in  the  way  previously  explained 
in  reference  to  fig.  5 — nutrition,  digestion  and  the 
production  of  force  and  urea  ;  and  almost  everyone, 
I  suppose,  who  has  gone  in  for  athletics  knows  the 
reviving  effect  of  a  mouthful  of  lemon,  which  is  no 
doubt  due  to  its  action  as  an  acid,  but  even  lemon 
has  little  or  no  effect  on  the  acidity  of  twenty-four 
hours'  urine. 


FOODS   AVAILABLE  55 

Still,  acid  fruits  taken  in  any  considerable  quan- 
tity with  breakfast,  and  unbalanced  by  potatoes,  do 
influence  very  decidedly  the  large  morning  excretion 
of  uric  acid,  and  so  diminish  the  excretion  of  that 
substance  for  the  whole  day  (see  ''  Uric  Acid," 
fig.  53,  p.  477). 

Garden  fruits  generally  may  be  regarded  as 
increasing  the  bulk  of  the  day's  food  without  adding 
much  to  its  albumen  values ;  but  they  contribute  a 
valuable  supply  of  water,  some  sugar  and  some  useful 
salts. 

Still,  taking  the  fruit  of  an  ordinary  day  and 
after  deducting  stones,  skins  and  stalks,  in  fact 
weighing  only  the  parts  eaten,  one  would  probably 
not  be  far  wrong  if  one  reckoned  them  as  contain- 
ing about  2  per  cent,  of  albumens. 

Dried  and  foreign  fruits  are  in  their  original  con- 
dition very  similar  to  those  above  considered,  but 
when  a  large  part  of  their  water  has  been  removed 
by  drying,  their  relative  albumen  value  is  of  course 
greatly  increased,  and  such  things  as  figs,  dates  and 
various  kinds  of  plums,  when  eaten  in  considerable 
quantity,  make  a  quite  appreciable  addition  to  the 
day's  albumens,  and  those  of  them  that  contain 
acids  or  acids  salts,  also  act  more  powerfully  as 
acids  when  condensed  by  drying. 

Looking  at  all  these  groups  of  foods,  I  will  con- 
clude this  part  of  the  subject  by  saying  that  it  is 
possible  to  Hve  on  a  diet  which  includes  some  of 


56  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   III 

each  of  these  groups  in  its  daily  routine ;  that  it  is 
possible  to  live  on  group  (1),  milk  and  its  products 
alone  ;  that  it  is  also  possible  to  live  on  all  the  rest, 
excluding  milk  and  animal  products  entirely,  and 
relying  chiefly  on  (2),  (3)  and  (6),  cereals,  dried  fruits 
and  nuts,  for  the  necessary  albumens  ;  that  it  is  not 
possible  to  live  on  (4)  and  (5),  garden  vegetables  and 
fruits  alone,  and  generally  in  this  country  not  on  (6) , 
dried  fruits  alone. 

As  the  result  of  my  own  personal  experiences,  I 
incline  to  believe  that  a  diet  which  includes  all  or 
nearly  all  of  these  groups  in  its  day's  cycle,  is  the 
best,  the  contribution  from  each  group  being  varied 
from  day  to  day  to  an  almost  endless  extent,  just  as 
flesh-eaters  vary  the  quantity,  quality  and  mode  of 
preparation  of  their  animal  food  from  day  to  day. 


57 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Values  of  Foods  in  Albumen  and  Urea.  Quan- 
tities Eequired.  Diet  of  Training  and 
Athletics. 

In  considering  the  values  of  foods  and  the 
quantities  required,  and  in  apportioning  these  into 
special  diets,  it  will  be  convenient  to  treat  of  diets 
according  as  they  are  required  for  ordinary  condi- 
tions of  life,  for  special  training  and  exercise,  or  for 
the  treatment  of  slight  departures  from  normal 
health,  such  as  obesity  and  some  minor  alterations 
of  function. 

We  have  already  seen  in  chapter  i.  that  the  body 
weight  in  pounds,  multiplied  by  9,  gives  the  mini- 
mum amount  of  albumens  required  for  a  sedentary 
life,  and  by  10  or  10' 5  those  required  for  an  active 
life,  such  as  that  of  an  out-door  labourer. 

And  if  we  take  an  active  man  of  140  lbs.,  and 
apply  these  rules,  we  find  that  he  will  require  1 ,400 
grains  of  albumen  per  da}^  which  will  produce 
about  466  grains  of  urea  per  day  when  completely 
digested  and  metabolised. 


68  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

With  regard  to  urea,  I  may  say  that  the  per- 
centages of  albumen  values,  to  be  given  in  the  diet 
tables  that  follow,  have  been  found  by  me  from 
practical  trial  to  be  very  close  to  the  truth ;  for 
though  on  a  weighed  diet,  continued  from  day  to 
day,  urea  will  be  one  day  below  and  another  above 
the  quantity  calculated  from  the  albumen  values 
of  those  foods,  when  taken  over  days  or  weeks, 
these  fluctuations  tend  to  balance  each  other,  and 
over  such  a  period  the  urea  calculated  from  the 
albumens  generally  comes  very  close  indeed  to  the 
urea  found. 

These  fluctuations  no  doubt  arise  from  variations 
in  the  time  of  digestion  of  the  foods  used,  as  the 
digestion  and  absorption  of  a  food  taken  one  day  is 
not  necessarily  concluded  in  time  for  the  twenty- 
four  hours'  division  of  the  urine  ;  and  then,  again, 
when  albumens  have  been  absorbed,  they  may,  as 
we  have  seen  reason  to  believe,  remain  either  in 
the  blood  or  the  tissues  as  a  reserve  of  force  till 
a  special  call  for  force  production  and  activity  is 
made  (see  fig.  1  and  remarks  upon  it;  also  "  Uric 
Acid,"  p.  335). 

But  when  allowance  is  made  for  these  causes 
of  variation,  the  values  to  be  given  are,  I  believe, 
quite  sufliciently  accurate  for  our  practical  pur- 
poses. 

Now  the  albumens  required  for  this  man  of  140 
lbs.  can  be  got  from  : — 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  59 


Table  I. 

10  ozs.  of  bread 

8  per  cent,  o 

f  albumens 

=  340 

2  ozs.  of  oatmeal 

12 

,, 

>> 

=  104 

2  pints  of  milk 

3 

)> 

,, 

=  525 

1^  ozs.  of  cheese 

•dS 

,, 

>> 

=  210 

1  oz.  of  nuts 

16 

,, 

,, 

-    68 

18  ozs.  fruit  and 

vegetables,  say  ^ 

to  2 

>> 

'> 

=  153 

1,400 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  such  a  diet  hst  may  be 
varied  greatly  in  very  many  directions,  and  that 
such  variations  may  be  used  as  temporary  changes 
or  permanent  diets,  according  to  taste,  habits,  cost, 
facihty  for  preparation,  and  other  concomitant  con- 
ditions. 

For  those  who  do  not  do  well  on  or  like  much 
fluid,  the  milk  can  be  reduced  to  1  pint  per  day 
if  the  cheese  is  increased  to  3^  oz.  ;  others  again 
may  be  able  to  increase  bread  or  bread  stuffs  to 
16  ozs.,  which  would  just  about  enable  them  to 
reduce  the  milk  to  1  pint  or  cut  out  the  cheese 
entirely,  and  some  may  take  still  more  bread  up  to 
24  ozs. 

Those  who  do  not  like  or  cannot  digest  nuts  in 
any  form  or  of  any  kind,  may  leave  them  out, 
slightly  increasing  the  bread,  milk  or  cheese,  or 
replacing  them  by  about  three  times  their  quantity 
(3  oz.)  of  dried  fruit. 

I  will  just  mention  that  almonds  are  to  be  ob- 
tained at  all  times,  that  well  roasted  and  salted  they 


60  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

are  generally  liked,  and  that  for  those  whose  teeth 
are  not  of  the  best  they  may  be  passed  through  a 
nut-mill. 

Nuts  have  the  further  advantage  common  to 
many  substances  that  leave  undigested  residues  of 
tending  to  prevent  or  relieve  constipation ;  in  other 
people,  however,  they  again,  in  common  with  other 
undigested  particles,  may  cause  some  intestinal  irri- 
tation, which  may  give  rise  to  papular  and  other 
slight  skin  eruptions. 

And  I  would  here  refer  to  what  I  have  already 
said  about  indigestible  substances  on  p.  16,  for 
in  some  people  nuts  may  relieve  dyspepsia  by 
putting  an  end  to  the  constipation  to  which  it  was 
due  ;  on  the  other  hand,  if  given  to  people  who  have 
suffered  from  gouty  or  other  intestinal  irritation 
with  or  without  diarrhoea,  they  may  increase  the 
irritation  and  intensify  its  evil  effects,  such  as  mal- 
nutrition and  anaemia,  and  pave  the  way  for  still 
more  terrible  enemies  such  as  tubercle. 

In  every  change  of  diet,  then,  we  must  see  that 
the  new  food  is  sufficient  in  quantity  and  satis- 
factorily digested  by  the  individual  in  question ;  and 
this  can  only  be  done  by  making  diet  alterations  very 
slowly,  one  meal  at  a  time,  and  watching  and  testing 
the  digestibility  of  each  new  food  stuff  as  it  comes 
to  be  used. 

For  this  purpose  I  am  in  the  habit  of  advising 
that   only   one   meal  should  be  altered  at  a  time, 


VAIiUES   OF   FOODS  61 

and  that  each  meal  should  be  watched  for,  say 
7,  10  or  14  days,  and  regarded  as  quite  satisfactory 
both  as  to  quantity,  quality,  digestibility,  resulting 
strength  and  power  for  work,  before  the  next  meal 
is  taken  in  hand. 

And  where  difficulties  are  met  with,  one  food  after 
another  should  be  tried  and  tested  till  the  best 
results  are  obtained,  and  no  matter  how  slowly 
they  have  to  go,  beginners  must  always  refuse  to 
move  the  second  foot  till  the  first  is  firmly  planted. 

In  cases  where  it  is  of  extreme  importance  that 
there  shall  be  no  failure  of  strength  and  nutrition  on 
the  new  diet,  as  for  instance  where  there  is  either 
tubercle  in  the  family,  or  its  onset  appears  to 
threaten  the  individual  in  question,  it  is  well  to  take 
the  precaution  of  estimating  the  urea  for  a  few  days 
on  the  old  ordinary  diet,  and  then  to  supply  albu- 
mens on  the  new  diet  in  accordance  with  the  results 
obtained. 

Thus  if  the  average  excretion  of  urea  on  4,  5,  or 
6  days  either  consecutive  or  taken  at  random  is 
450  grains,  then  we  must  supply  450  X  3=1350  grs. 
of  albumen  per  day  on  the  new  diet ;  but  if  the 
patient  has  had  a  bad  appetite  on  the  old  diet,  so 
that  the  average  urea  is  below  the  physiological 
level  of  3  or  35  grs.  per  pound  of  body  weight  per 
day,  then  we  must  go  by  the  body  weight,  giving  a 
physiological  allowance  of  urea  and  albumen,  and 
not  by  the  urea  found. 


62  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

But  if  tubercle  is  actually  present,  and  feeding  up 
is  indicated,  then  far  more  than  the  physiological 
allowance  of  albumens  should  be  given,  and  the 
patient  can  be  stuffed  with  food  to  any  extent  that 
is  possible,  as  4  pints  of  milk,  16  ozs.  bread  stuffs 
and  4  ozs.  of  cheese  in  many  shapes  and  forms, 
with  butter  and  cream  ad  lib.  ;  and  it  is  -certainly  no 
harder  to  overfeed  a  patient  on  this  diet  than  on  one 
of  flesh,  indeed  it  is  often  much  easier,  and  as  I  have 
said  in  "  Uric  Acid  "  (p.  393)  much  less  dangerous. 

Then  again  the  total  bulk  of  the  diet  may  be 
greatly  diminished  by  substituting  gluten  or  protene 
for  some  of  the  bread  ;  or  by  adding  gluten  to  some 
of  the  bread  or  cereal  foods,  or  by  taking  a  bread 
such  as  Hovis,  which  contains  a  larger  percentage 
of  albumens  than  ordinary  bread,  thus  : — 

Table  II. 

5  ozs.  Hovis  bread'  16  per  cent,  of  albumens  =  340grs. 
2  ozs.  oatmeal  12         ,,  ,,  =  104    „ 

1  oz.  gluten  80         „  „  =  344    ,, 

1  pint  milk  3         ,,  „  =  262   ,, 

2|  ozs.  cheese  33  „  ,,  =350    ,, 

1,400 

A  further  modification  of  such  a  diet,  and  one 
that  is  sometimes  convenient,  if  only  because  it 
entails  almost  no  labour  for  preparation  and  cook- 


^  While  most  of  the  above  percentages  of  albumens  are  from 
Parkes'  "  Practical  Hygiene,"  5th  ed.,  with  which  my  researches 
agree,  the  value  of  Hovis  and  of  nuts  is  that  calculated  from  my 
researches  alone. 


VALUES   OF  FOODS  63 

ing,  is  one  consisting  of  milk  and  cheese,  fruit  and 
vegetables,  thus : — 

Table  III. 

2^  ozs.  cheese  33  per  cent,  of  albumens  =  350  grs. 

3  pints  milk                3         „  „  =  787    „ 

15  ozs.  potatoes           2         ,,  ,,  —  126    ,, 

16  ozs.  fruit                   2         „  „  =  137    ,, 

1,400 

I  may  say  that  I  took  the  above  diet  of  cheese, 
milk,  potatoes,  and  fruit  for  four  or  five  months 
with  very  good  results,  and  should  recommend  it 
for  those  who  suffer  from  dysyepsia,  when  on  cereal 
foods  and  bread,  or  as  a  change  from  these.  It  is 
convenient  for  those  who  desire  for  a  time,  either 
at  home  or  while  travelling,  to  be  almost  inde- 
pendent of  cooking,  as  except  for  the  potatoes 
and  occasionally  a  little  stewed  fruit,  almost  no 
cooking  is  required,  and  raw  fresh  fruit  can  be 
substituted  for  potatoes  and  cooked  fruit  if  necessary. 

It  is  also  a  diet  that  does  prett}^  well  for  children, 
who  are  often  fond  of  fruit  and  vegetables,  and  as 
these  would  only  rarely  require  more  than  some 
1,200  grains  of  albumen,  the  cheese  could  be 
reduced  to  1  oz.  or  less  in  their  case. 

Some  may  be  able  to  take  more  than  the  above 
quantities  of  potatoes  and  fruit,  and  then  the  milk 
may  be  somewhat  reduced,  as  3  pints  is  rather  a 
large  quantity  of  fluid,  especially  in  cold  weather 
and  for  those  who  are  sedentary. 


64  DIET  AND  FOOD — CHAPTER  IV 

My  own  experience  is  that  I  can  take  2J  or  even 
3  pints  of  milk  quite  well  in  summer,  especially  if 
not  sedentary ;  but  2  pints  are  quite  enough  in 
winter  and  when  sedentary. 

Others,  again,  may  be  able  to  take  more  than 
2^  ozs.  of  cheese  and  can  reduce  the  milk  while 
increasing  the  cheese  ;  and  those  who  get  on  well 
with  nuts  or  dried  fruits  can  considerably  reduce 
either  cheese  or  milk,  replacing  them  by  one  or 
both  of  these  as  mentioned  with  regard  to  Table  I. 

Such  are  some  of  the  chief  modifications  of  the 
diet,  but  it  is  obvious  that  it  can  be  altered  in  an 
almost  endless  variety  of  ways,  and  those  to  whom 
few  foods  come  amiss,  and  who  have  good  diges- 
tion, can  have  a  different  diet,  or  at  least  a  con- 
siderable change  of  food,  every  week  throughout 
the  year. 

There  are  some  people,  however,  who  do  not  take 
kindly  to  any  of  these  foods  and  who  are  in  a  very 
poor  way,  feeble  and  dyspeptic ;  with  these  any  of 
the  above  modifications  of  diet  may  be  difficult,  and 
for  a  time  even  impossible. 

They  cannot  drink  milk,  or  they  greatly  dislike 
it ;  they  cannot  digest  cheese,  and  they  can  eat  but 
little  bread,  and  so  on  through  the  whole  list ;  there 
is  practically  nothing  but  meat,  fish  and  eggs  which 
they  can  eat,  and  they  have  but  a  poor  appetite  even 
for  these. 

With  these  people  it  is  best,  I  think,  to  improve 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  (55 

the  general  health,  and  get  up  an  appetite  by  tonics 
and  change  of  air  before  altering  the  food  at  all ; 
and  the  meals,  if  too  frequent,  may  be  spaced  and 
reduced  to  three,  two,  or  even  one  in  the  day. 

Or  in  some  cases  food  may  be  altogether  with- 
held for  some  days  till  there  is  a  decided  appetite, 
as  recommended  by  Dr.  Dewey  (previous  reference), 
and  then  when  there  is  a  good  appetite  for  ordinary 
food,  some  of  the  flesh  food  of  the  old  diet  may 
be  gradually  replaced  by  equivalent  value  in  milk, 
cheese,  or  bread  ;  and  one  meal  at  a  time  may  be 
changed,  with  more  or  less  interval  between  the 
changes  as  may  be  required. 

But  to  put  a  debilitated  and  dyspeptic  patient 
suddenly  on  to  a  diet  which  is  not  relished,  and  may 
not  be  digested,  is,  I  think,  at  best  rash,  and  may 
even  be  somewhat  dangerous. 

I  believe  that,  with  care,  patience,  and  determina- 
tion, these  initial  difficulties  can  generally  be  over- 
come, especially  when  the  fear  of  serious  or  painful 
disease  furnishes  some  vim  a  tergo. 

But  even  in  those  who  get  over  these  initial  diffi- 
culties, dyspepsia  may  now  and  then  cause  some 
more  or  less  decided  trouble,  and  I  shall,  there- 
fore, mention  shortly  what  have  appeared  to  me 
to  be  the  chief  causes  of  this. 

Too  much  albumen,  especially  in  the  form  of  milk 
and  cheese,  to  which  the  patient  is  not  accustomed. 
Bread  is  a  better  and  more  reliable  food,  and  its 
5 


66  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

bulk  generally  prevents  its  being  taken  in  too  large 
a  quantity. 

Too  great  hulk  of  food  (fruit  and  vegetables), 
especially  in  those  accustomed  to  such  foods  of 
small  bulk  as  meat,  fish  and  eggs. 

For  this  trouble  food  may  be  reduced,  at  least  for 
a  time,  to  little  besides  milk,  cheese  and  bread 
stuffs,  the  more  nourishing  and  important  foods  ; 
and  vegetables  and  fruit  should  be  taken  only  after 
these  have  been  provided  for,  and  in  quite  small 
quantities. 

Too  much  fluid.  It  should,  I  think,  be  a  rule 
with  all  who  go  on  to  these  diets  never  to  drink 
when  not  thirsty,  for  those  who  do  so  tend  to  get 
a  dilute  and  watery  condition  of  the  blood,  and  this 
entails  a  more  or  less  dilute  and  watery  condition  of 
the  digestive  secretions  poured  out  from  the  blood. 

Such  dilute  digestive  secretions  will  act  slowly 
and  inefficiently,  and  more  or  less  fermentation  and 
putrefaction  will,  meanwhile,  be  going  on  in  the 
food  masses,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  gases, 
acids,  and  decomposition  products. 

Too  much  sloppy  and  pultaceous  food,  especially 
starchy  food.  This,  I  have  already  referred  to,  and 
pointed  out  the  importance  of  taking  starchy  foods 
as  dry  as  possible,  for  if  such  foods  are  sodden  with 
fluid,  the  salivary  digestive  secretion  obviously 
cannot  very  easily  get  into  contact  with  its  starchy 
particles,  or  can  only  do  so  slowly  and  after  more  or 
less  dilution. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  67 

And  it  is  certainly  a  fact  that,  under  some  condi- 
tions, the  stopping  of  bread  and  milk,  porridge,  and 
milky  puddings,  and  their  replacement  by  toast, 
biscuits  and  oatcake,  eaten  dry  or  with  a  little 
butter,  the  milk  being  taken  only  apart  from  or 
after  them,  may  make  all  the  difference  between 
troublesome  flatulent  dyspepsia,  distension  and  dis- 
comfort, and  their  absence. 

And  it  is  for  these  reasons  (fear  of  too  much  fluid 
in  the  blood  or  too  much  sloppy  starchy  food) ,  that 
it  is  often  advisable  not  to  take  more  milk  than 
two  pints  in  the  day,  especially  in  cold  weather, 
and  when  sedentary  ;  and  also  not  to  mix  that  milk 
with  starchy  foods  into  slops  and  porridges  and 
puddings;  and  those  who  suffer  from  flatulent 
dyspepsia  should  carefully  bear  these  points  in 
mind. 

There  is  no  harm  in  drinking  when  thirsty,  for 
thirst  means  that  the  blood  is  concentrated  and 
in  want  of  fluid,  and  nature  will  not  ask  for  more 
than  she  w^ants  ;  but  there  may  be  great  harm  in 
taking  fluid  by  rule,  or  order,  and  apart  from  thirst ; 
and  it  may  even  make  all  the  difference  between 
success  and  failure  with  the  diet. 

Too  frequent  food.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
those  who  take  meat  require  to  be  fed  more  fre- 
quently than  those  who  live  largely  on  cereals,  and 
it  is  due,  as  already  mentioned,  to  the  fact  that 
meat  is  a  stimulant  and  is  quickly  digested,  absorbed 


68  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

and  worked  off,  while  cereal  food  is  more  slowly 
assimilated,  and  gives  off  over  a  series  of  hours  a 
constant  steady  supply  of  albumen  force  and  urea. 

But  on  giving  up  meat  the  frequent  feeding  need 
not  be  continued,  and  those  who  attempt  to  con- 
tinue it  will  be  more  liable  to  dyspepsia  than  those 
who  are  content  with  two  or,  at  most,  three  meals 
a  day. 

I  frequently  see  people  who  take  as  many  as  six 
to  seven  meals  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  that  is  to 
say,  they  take  three  or  four  chief  meals  and  two 
or  three  intermediate  meals  of  milk,  &c.,  between 
these.  They  learned  this  habit  on  the  old  diet, 
and  they  continue  it  on  the  new,  under  the  impres- 
sion that  they  must  eat  and  drink  a  great  deal  to 
keep  their  strength  up  ;  but  the  common  result  of 
their  efforts  is  dyspepsia  and  debility. 

Another  cause  of  dyspepsia  with  milk  may  un- 
doubtedly be  the  preservatives  mixed  with  it. 
These  may  have  but  little  influence  when  it  is  only 
taken  in  small  quantity  in  tea,  and  yet  may  produce 
more  or  less  serious  effects  in  those  who  take  it  in 
the  larger  quantities  advised  in  the  tables  of  this 
book. 

I  have  made  some  experiments  with  borax  myself, 
and  the  utmost  dose  I  could  take,  even  for  a  short 
time,  without  producing  symptoms  of  gastro-intes- 
tinal  dyspepsia,  was  30  grains  in  the  day. 

I  should,  therefore,  advise  those  who  can  eliminate 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  69 

the  other  causes  of  dyspepsia,  and  yet  find  their 
dyspepsia  associated  with  milk  or  other  foods  with 
which  preservatives  are  known  to  be  mixed,  to 
make  a  special  effort  to  obtain  these  foods  free  from 
such  preservatives,  and  see  whether  the  symptoms 
then  subside. 

In  all  these  diets,  butter  and  oil  may  be  freely 
taken  with  cereals  and  vegetables ;  they  are  merely 
left  out  of  the  Tables  because  they  contain  no 
albumen  or  nitrogen,  but  these  and  the  starches  are 
very  amply  provided  for  in  the  diets. 

It  is,  I  think,  common  experience  that  butter  and 
oil  can  be  much  more  freely  taken  on  a  meat-free 
diet  than  on  one  containing  flesh,  and  it  is  at  least 
probable  that  the  evil  influence  of  uric  acid  in  the 
blood,  hindering,  as  it  does,  circulation,  digestion, 
metabolism  and  combustion,  has  something  to  do 
with  this  ;  and  certainly  the  digestive,  hepatic,  and 
other  disturbances  that  accompany  bilious  attacks 
and  sick  headaches  are  due  to  the  circulation  effects 
of  uric  acid. 

Though  the  action  of  these  substances  in  the 
production  of  force  is  probably  indirect,  and  for  the 
most  part  unimportant,  they  are  amply  provided  for 
in  the  diets,  and  the  assimilation  and  metabolism  of 
fat  is  distinctly  facilitated  when  it  forms  part  of  a 
uric  acid-free  diet. 

I  may  note  in  passing  that  the  diet  of  milk, 
cheese,  potatoes   and    fruit,   is    that    which   of   all 


70  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  IV 

Others  seemed  to  best  keep  the  urine  clear  and  free 
from  deposits  of  urates  or  red  sand,  and  this  was  no 
doubt  due  to  the  amount  of  alkaU  in  the  potatoes 
and  of  similar  salts  in  the  fruit,  as  well  as  to  the 
absence  from  milk  and  cheese  of  salts  such  as  those 
contained  in  meat  and  cereals,  which  tend  to  raise 
the  acidity  of  the  urine. 

Thus  I  have  pointed  out  in  *'  Uric  Acid  "  that  the 
ratio  of  the  acid  excreted  in  the  urine  to  the  urea 
excreted  at  the  same  time  is,  on  a  diet  containing 
some  fish  and  eggs,  1-6*3,  i.e.f  1  grain  of  acid  to  6*3 
grains  of  urea.  While  on  a  diet  such  as  that  in 
Tables  I.  and  II.  it  is  1-7,  or  between  1-7  and  1-8, 
and  on  a  diet  such  as  that  in  Table  III.  it  tends  to 
be  about  1-9,  or  between  1-9  and  1-10,  and  with  this 
the  urine  is  generally  quite  clear. 

It  will  be  understood  from  what  I  have  said  in 
*'  Uric  Acid  "  that  this  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of 
the  quantity  of  uric  acid  excreted,  as  of  its  solubility 
in  the  urine  after  excretion :  though  no  doubt  both 
are  affected  by  acidity,  and  a  deposit  of  red  sand  in 
the  urine  is  the  index  of  deficient  rather  than  (as  is 
so  commonly  supposed)  of  excessive  excretion  from 
the  body. 

But  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to  those,  who 
are  worried  about  such  deposits  in  the  urine  of 
their  patients,  to  know  that  by  such  a  diet  as  the 
above,  which  diminishes  the  relative  acidity  of  the 
urine,  they  can  be  prevented.     Those  also  who  are 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  71 

very  sedentary  should  be  careful,  especially  in  cold 
weather,  to  take  no  more  albumens  than  are  really 
required  for  strength  and  nutrition,  as  acidity  rises 
with  urea,  and  under  these  conditions  it  may  suJB&ce 
for  a  time  if  body  weight  is  multiplied  by  8  in  place 
of  9.  With  reference  to  the  relatively  high  acidity  of 
the  urine  with  the  diets  in  Tables  I.  and  II.,  I  think 
that  some  part  of  this  must  be  credited  to  the  bread 
and  cereal  foods  which  are  well  represented  in  these 
Tables,  but  are  completely  absent  in  Table  III. ;  and 
if  we  look  at  the  analysis  of  a  cereal,  such  as  barley, 
we  find  that  it  appears  to  contain  a  considerable 
excess  of  acids. 

Thus  I  see^  that  the  ash  of  barley  contains  34-9 
per  cent,  of  potash,  soda,  lime  and  magnesia,  and 
61 '6  per  cent,  of  phosphoric,  sulphuric,  and  soluble 
silicic  acids,  and  if  wheat  and  oats  have  any  similar 
excess  this  will  easily  account  for  the  relatively  high 
acidity  of  the  urine  on  the  diets  of  which  they  form 
a  part. 

These  cereals  often  tend  decidedly  to  raise  the 
acidity  of  the  urine,  and  when  taken  in  quantity 
over  a  length  of  time,  especially  in  cold  weather, 
they  may  not  only  raise  the  acidity  of  the  urine, 
but  also  diminish  the  alkalinity  of  the  blood ;  hence 
they  may  tend  to  cause  some  retention  of  uric  acid 


'In   "A  Text  Book  of  the   Science  of  Brewing,"   Moritz   and 
Morris.     1891.     P.  75. 


72  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

in  the  body,  and  acting  with  other  causes  may  even 
lead  towards  gout  and  rheumatism. 

Thus  horses  suffer  considerably  from  rheumatism, 
probably  when  given  too  much  dry  cereal  and  too 
little  fresh  vegetable,  and  they  are  very  often  greatly 
exposed  to  cold  and  wet ;  and  all  these  things  tend  to 
diminish  the  alkalinity  of  the  blood. 

And  arthritis,  both  in  men  and  horses,  can  be 
treated  by  increasing  the  alkalinity  of  the  blood  and 
keeping  it  up,  and  this  may  be  done  by  eating 
vegetables  that  contain  alkali,  such  as  potatoes,  and 
by  diminishing  the  albumens  taken  till  they  are  well 
within  the  physiological  limits,  for  diminution  of 
albumens  diminishes  the  formation  of  acids  in  the 
body  ;  and  it  is  the  overfed,  both  among  children  and 
horses,  that  suffer  most  from  rheumatism.  It  is 
not  as  fond  and  foolish  mothers  so  often  imagine 
that  they  must  be  fed  up :  a  little  wholesome  star- 
vation with  plenty  of  vegetables  is  much  more  likely 
to  prevent  the  dreaded  disease,  but  most  children 
that  suffer  are  poisoned  with  uric  acid-containing 
foods  in  addition  to  being  overfed. 

With  reference  to  pulses,  it  will  have  been  noticed 
that  now  they  are  not  mentioned  either  here  or  in 
the  tables  of  foods,  and  this  is  due  to  the  fact  (of 
which  I  have  given  full  details  in  ''  Uric  Acid," 
p.  764,  and  fig.  75)  that  I  found  out  that  they 
actually  contain  even  more  xanthin  than  many 
kinds  of  animal  flesh,  and  are  therefore,  like  flesh 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  73 

and  alkaloid-containing  vegetable  substances,  to  be 
regarded  as  poisonous. 

I  should  now,  therefore,  be  inclined  to  consider 
that  the  rheumatism  met  with  among  the  vegetarian 
natives  of  India  is  not  so  much  due,  as  I  previousl}^ 
suggested,  both  to  excess  of  cereals  with  deficiency  of 
fresh  fruits  and  vegetables,  and  exposure  to  cold  at 
night,  &c.,  as  in  the  case  of  horses,  though  no 
doubt  all  these  things  have  some  contributory 
effects,  but  rather  to  direct  and  considerable  in- 
troduction of  uric  acid  or  xanthin  in  the  pulse  foods, 
which  so  many  natives  use  to  a  large  extent. 

And  I  believe  it  will  turn  out  on  investigation 
that,  in  those  parts  of  India  where  rice  and  fresh 
vegetable  substances  form  the  staple  foods,  not  only 
rheumatism  but  uric-acid  diseases  generally  are  but 
little  known,  whereas  in  those  parts  where  pulses 
are  very  largely  consumed  they  are  common — almost 
universal. 

A  similar  investigation  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  would,  I  believe,  trace  to  the  excessive  use 
of  flesh  and  tea  an  equally  long  array  of  serious  or 
deadly  diseases,  and  an  almost  equal  number  of 
mental  and  moral  defects,  which  only  a  complete 
reversal  of  their  present  diet  habits  will  render 
visible  by  contrast. 

In  this  country,  also,  I  should  attribute  to  the 
poisons  of  flesh  and  tea  the  all-pervading  anaemia 
which,  as  seen  in  London,  cannot  be  due  to  want 


74  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

of  oxygen,  as  I  have  pointed  out  that  it  is  equally 
to  be  seen  in  country  towns  of  only  half  a  mile 
radius  ;  in  the  same  way  many  mental  and  moral 
obliquities  are  no  doubt  due  to  the  obstructed  circu- 
lation of  poor  blood  loaded  with  these  poisons  (see 
"  Uric  Acid,"  pp.  500  and  782). 

But  these  diseases  have  crept  over  us  so  gradually 
that  we  quite  fail  to  recognise  the  full  extent  of  our 
loss ;  and  even  in  my  own  case  I  should  formerly 
have  said  that,  apart  from  headaches,  I  had  good 
mental  and  bodily  health  on  meat  and  tea,  because 
I  knew  no  better ;  but  I  should  now  say  that  I  have 
in  both  directions  50  per  cent,  better  health  without 
them. 

For  the  benefit  of  some  who  may  see  mountains 
of  difficulty  in  minute  points,  I  will  now  give  an 
outline  of  a  day's  food  on  the  above  diet. 

For  those  in  good  health  three  meals  a  day,  break- 
fast, lunch  and  dinner,  are  ample ;  some  even  do 
better  with  a  light  breakfast  or  none — this  latter 
course  being  specially  indicated  where  there  is  little 
or  no  appetite  for  a  morning  meal  (see  Dr.  Dewey's 
works  referred  to  in  chapter  i.). 

I  may  say  also  that  simple  food  of  not  more  than 
two  or  three  kinds  at  one  meal  is  another  great 
secret  of  health  ;  and  if  this  seems  harsh  to  those 
whose  day  is  at  present  divided  between  contem- 
plating, preparing  their  food,  and  eating  it,  I  am 
afraid  I  must  be  still  more  unkind,  and  ask  them  to 


VALUES   OF  FOODS  75 

consider  seriously  whether  such  a  Hfe  is  not  the 
acme  of  selfish  meanness. 

And  in  case  they  should  ever  be  at  a  loss  what  to 
do  with  the  time  and  money  thus  saved  from  feast- 
ing and  preparing  to  feast,  I  would  point  on  the  one 
hand  to  the  mass  of  unrelieved  destitution,  igno- 
rance, sorrow  and  suffering,  and  on  the  other  to  the 
doors  of  literature,  science  and  art,  which  stand 
ever  open  to  those  fortunate  enough  to  have  time 
to  investigate  them  ;  and  from  none  of  these,  as 
they  are  still  in  their  infancy,  need  any  turn  aside 
from  want  of  new  kingdoms  to  conquer. 

In  any  case  the  best  of  health,  strength,  and  nutri- 
tion are  not  to  be  obtained  by  waste  of  time  and 
money  on  elaborate  food,  when  the  simplest  things 
are  all  that  are  really  required  and  accepted  by 
nature. 

If  we  take  then.  Table  I.,  breakfast  (before  which 
an  hour  or  an  hour  and  a  half's  work,  if  possible 
in  the  fresh  air,  is  no  drawback)  may  well  consist 
of  oatmeal  (2  ozs.)  cooked  in  the  form  of  porridge, 
with  J-J  or  1  pint  of  milk,  and  this  may  be  followed 
by  some  toast  or  bread  (2-3  ozs.)  and  butter,  with 
marmalade  or  jam.  These  are  the  staple  foods 
of  the  breakfast  and  should  be  taken  first,  and  if 
when  they  have  been  consumed,  some  appetite  still 
remains,  any  fresh  fruit,  or  dried  fruit  in  winter, 
may  be  taken  to  any  desired  extent. 

I    should     say,    however,    that   those,    who    are 


76  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

specially  anxious  to  have  a  free  excretion  of  uric 
acid,  and  not  to  retain  any  of  this  substance  in  their 
body,  should  not  take  much  acid  fruit  at  breakfast, 
or  should  divide  their  attention  between  such  acid 
fruits  and  potatoes  which  contain  much  alkali,  so 
that  the  alkali  may  more  or  less  balance  the  acid. 

For  those  who  have  not  to  be  specially  anxious 
about  excretion,  and  who  do  not  suffer  from  any 
active  gout  or  rheumatism,  fruit  at  breakfast  is 
probably  not  hurtful,  and  acts  as  a  slight  tonic  and 
stimulant. 

As  variations  of  this  diet,  bread  and  milk  may  be 
substituted  for  porridge,  the  oatmeal  may  be  taken 
as  oatcakes,  and  scones,  or  any  other  cereal  of  equiva- 
lent nutrition  value,  and  quantity,  may  be  substituted 
for  it  in  any  desired  form  ;  thus  it  may  be  possible 
to  have  a  new  kind  of  cereal  every  morning  of  the 
week,  or  even  every  morning  of  the  iiionth. 

These  are  all  homely  foods,  to  be  found  in  nearly 
every  household  or  nearly  every  baker's  shop,  and 
their  cooking,  therefore,  presents  no  insuperable 
difficulties.^ 

As  to  fruits  in  winter,  apples,  oranges,  bananas, 
tigs,  dates  and  various  kinds  of  plums,  generally 
afford  sufficient  variety,  and  in  summer  and  autumn 


'  Those  who  want  a  guide  as  to  the  quantity  of  each  article, 
and  also  hints  as  to  the  cooking  and  preparation,  will  find 
much  useful  help  in  small  compass  in  Mr.  A.  Broadbent's 
"  Science  in  the  Daily  Meal,"  to  be  obtained  from  him  at 
19,  Oxford  Street,  Manchester,  price  2d. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  77 

there  are  endless  fresh  fruits  to  take  their  place  ; 
and  though,  as  is  seen  in  the  Tables,  many  fruits 
and  vegetables  have  but  little  direct  value  as 
nourishment,  a  moderate  daily  supply  of  these 
things  conduces  in  many  ways  to  the  attainment 
of  the  best  health,  strength  and  nutrition.  On  the 
other  hand  the  foods  to  live  upon  are  bread,  milk, 
cheese,  and  nuts,  and  of  these  bread  is  perhaps  the 
most  reliable  ;  and  those,  who  cannot  take  and  digest 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  one  of  its  almost  endless 
varieties,  are  indeed  unfortunate. 

Lunch,  which  is  often  with  advantage  the  best 
meal  of  the  day,  may  begin  with  some  vegetable 
soup  made  with  milk ;  this  may  be  like  ordinary 
potato  soup,  the  meat  or  bone  boilings  being  simply 
replaced  by  milk,  which  is  much  more  nourishing, 
or  the  same  or  similar  preparation  may  be  used  with 
some  of  the  other  kinds  of  vegetable. 

Next  course,  potatoes,  with  milk,  oil  or  butter,  and 
the  cheese  (IJ  oz.)  taken  with  them. 

Several  ounces  of  bread,  toast  or  biscuit  should 
also  be  eaten  with  the  soup,  the  potatoes  and 
cheese  :  these  forming  the  sauces  to  the  bread  stuffs. 

A  dish  of  rice,  macaroni,  barley,  or  other  cereal 
may  be  substituted  for  the  potatoes  and  part  of  the 
bread. 

I  may  mention  here  that  I  look  upon  good  olive 
oil  as  a  valuable  substitute  for  butter.  It  is  specially 
nice  with  vegetables,  and  may  be  eaten  with  many  of 


78  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

these,  besides  the  salads  for  which  it  has  so  long 
been  used.  It  is  of  great  use  also  in  cooking  vege- 
tables, and  many  get  to  like  it  so  much  that  they 
entirely  give  up  the  use  of  butter  ;  others  prefer  it 
only  now  and  again  as  a  change  from  butter.  It  is 
necessary  to  get  it  good  and  fresh,  when  it  is  free 
from  all  strong  and  objectionable  taste. 

These  are  the  chief  items  of  nourishment  at 
lunch,  and  should  be  taken  first  as  a  first  charge 
on  the  appetite ;  and  care  should  be  taken  not  to 
allow  the  less  nourishing  potatoes  and  garden 
vegetables  to  oust  the  more  nourishing  cheese, 
bread  and  cereals  :  the  sauces  must  not  encroach 
on  the  foods. 

The  following  experience  may  illustrate  what  I 
mean  :  One  autumn  day  a  party  of  cyclists  were  out 
riding,  and  finding  in  the  middle  of  the  day  that  it 
was  extremely  hot,  and  also  that  there  were  a  large 
number  of  blackberries  at  the  side  of  the  road,  they 
called  a  halt  and  spent  half  an  hour  in  eating  the 
fruit.  This  was  about  12.30  or  1  p.m.  and  when 
it  came  to  their  ordinary  lunch  time,  2  p.m.,  none  of 
them  had  much  appetite  as  they  were  busy  digesting 
the  blackberries;  the  consequence  was  that  but  a 
poor  lunch  was  made. 

The  blackberries,  however,  containing  very  little 
albumen,  and  the  supply  at  lunch  being  deficient, 
the   result  was   that   about   5   p.m.   they   were   all 


VALUES   0¥   FOODS  79 

short  of  albumens  and  force,  and  bad  to  call  a  halt 
for  more  food  to  enable  them  to  continue  their  ride, 
while  as  a  rule,  they  required  no  food  from  the 
2  p.m.  meal  till  8  or  even  8,30  p.m.  Now  this  is 
pretty  much  what  is  done  by  those  who  sit  down  to 
a  meal  and  fill  themselves  with  the  almost  valueless 
vegetables  and  fruits,  leaving  the  bread,  milk  and 
cheese  to  the  last ;  they  have  then  but  little 
appetite,  and  unless  they  eat  by  measure,  do  not 
take  enough,  or  get  dyspepsia  from  excess  of  bulk. 

The  rest  of  the  meal  may  consist  of  milk  pudding, 
tart,  or  stewed  fruit  (the  pudding  not,  of  course, 
containing  any  egg),  the  cereal  in  the  pudding  may 
make  up  for  any  deficiency  in  the  oatmeal  or  cereal 
taken  at  breakfast  ;  and  last,  the  nuts  with  fresh  or 
dried  fruit  to  any  required  extent.^ 

If  the  lunch  is  a  good  meal  eaten  with  appetite, 
nothing  but  a  drink  of  water,  or  aerated  water  with 
fruit  juice  in  summer,  will  be  required  till  7.30  or 
8  p.m.,  when  all  that  remains  of  the  milk  and  bread 
may  be  taken  with  some  more  potato  or  other 
vegetable,  butter  or  oil  being  always  allowed  ad  lib., 
except  to  those  who  are  too  stout. 

These  may  be  followed  by  junket,  or  stewed  fruit 
with    cream  (the    latter    being    only  equivalent    to 


'  If  nuts  are  taken  in  larger  quantity  than  that  mentioned  in 
Table  I.,  they  should  be  given  an  earlier  and  more  important 
place  in  the  meal,  and  indeed  they  may  be  better  digested  if 
taken  before  the  meal  and  bv  themselves. 


80  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

butter  or  oil,  and  the  junket  taking  the  place  of 
some  of  the  milk),  and  these  again  as  usual  by  an 
unlimited  supply  of  fresh  fruits. 

When  a  meal  such  as  lunch  has  to  be  taken  out 
of  doors  and  away  from  home,  the  cheese  may  be 
made  into  sandwiches,  either  being  cut  in  sHces  or 
grated  for  the  purpose. 

Similar  sandwiches  to  be  eaten  with  these,  may 
be  made  with  various  vegetables,  such  as  mustard 
and  cress,  lettuce,  beetroot,  cucumber  or  tomatoes. 

In  this  way  the  chief  ingredients  of  the  lunch  can 
be  carried,  and  some  milk,  aerated  waters  and  fruit 
will  complete  it. 

A  similar  lunch,  which  is  quickly  provided  and 
easily  carried,  may  consist  entirely  of  some  biscuits 
with  more  or  less  butter,  some  cheese  and  some  fruit. 

The  milk,  cheese,  potatoes  and  fruit  diet  which,  as 
before  mentioned,  has  many  and  great  advantages, 
would  work  out  into  meals  as  follows  : — 

Breakfast : — 1  pint  of  milk. 

Plate  of  potatoes,  \ 

Bananas,  eaten  with  it  to 

Pears,  any  extent  for 

Apples,  [      which  there  is 

Plums,   fresh,   dried,    or    cooked,        appetite. 
Any  other  fresh  fruit, 
Lunch  : — Vegetable  soup  made  with  milk. 

Plate  of  potatoes  (with  butter,  oil  or  milk). 

2   ozs.    cheese,    eaten    with   potatoes  and  any   other 

vegetables  in  season. 
Stewed  fruit  or  tart. 
Fresh  fruit. 
1  pint  of  milk  drunk  during  the  meal. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  81 

Dinner  : — Much  as  lunch. 
1  pint  of  milk, 
I  oz.  cheese. 

Any  variety  in  vegetables  and  fruits  in  season ;  and  of  course  if 
potatoes  and  fruit  are  liked  and  taken  in  larger  quantity  than  is 
given  in  Table  III.,  somewhat  less  milk  and  cheese  will  be  required. 

If  it  is  desired  to  reduce  the  amount  of  fluid  in 
this  diet,  Protene  biscuits  eaten  before  the  meals 
may  be  substituted  for  part  of  the  milk. 

No  extra  drink  of  any  sort  is  required,  as  the 
fresh  fruit  and  the  milk  generally  supply  quite 
enough  liquid.  When  away  from  home  cheese  can 
be  carried  in  place  of  milk  in  the  proportion  of 
2  ozs.  cheese  to  1  pint  of  milk. 

What  I  shall  have  to  say  about  stimulants, 
presently,  of  course  applies  to  all  alcoholic  bever- 
ages ;  and  milk,  water,  aerated  waters  and  fruit 
juices  are  the  best  drinks  ;  but  cider,  when  made 
from  the  pure  juice  of  fruit,  has  but  httle  in  it 
that  need  be  objected  to,  and  many  nice  drinks 
for  hot  weather  can  be  made  from  lemons,  apples, 
raspberries,  &c. 

Another  point  is,  and  this  applies  to  drinks,  fruit, 
vegetables,  and  all  kinds  of  additional  foods,  that 
nothing  must  be  taken  that  interferes  with  digestion 
or  upsets  the  stomach  ;  otherwise  digestion  alto- 
gether may  come  to  a  standstill  and  there  will  be  no 
rise  of  urea  as  in  fig.  1  at  3  p.m.,  and  no  increased 
power  of  working  and  force  production,  no  matter 
6 


82  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

how  nourishing  and  rich  in  albumens  the  foods  pre- 
viously taken  may  be. 

Now  very  acid  fruits,  very  tough  or  sour  vege- 
tables, a  glass  of  raw  spirits,  or  a  strong  pipe  or 
cigar,  or  an  ice  after  food,  in  those  not  accustomed 
to  them,  may  act  in  this  way,  and  either  cause 
nausea  and  the  entire  loss  of  the  meal  by  vomiting, 
or  at  least  suspend  digestion,  the  absorption  of 
albumens,  and  the  production  of  force  for  some 
hours,  more  or  less. 

Thus,  a  boy  of  13,  out  with  a  shooting  party  and 
having  lunch  with  them,  was  given  some  whisky 
after  it,  with  the  result  that  he  presently  brought 
up  his  whole  meal.  By  accident  the  wine  had  been 
forgotten,  and  as  it  was  thought  that  the  boy  must 
have  something  other  than  pure  water  with  his 
lunch  (crime  that  such  should  ever  be  thought),  he 
was  given  some  whisky,  to  which  he  was  not 
accustomed,  in  its  place,  and  the  whisky  acting  as 
an  irritant  to  the  stomach,  as  shown  to  a  minor 
degree  in  "  Uric  Acid,"  fig.  67,  first  stopped  diges- 
tion, and  then  produced  the  above  result. 

This  is,  of  course,  not  intended  to  be  a  work  on 
cookery,  and  what  I  have  said  above  has  been  with 
the  intention  of  indicating  a  few  directions  in  which 
others  niay  exercise  their  own  knowledge  and 
ingenuity,  and  of  removing  perhaps  some  of  the 
worst  difficulties  from  the  paths  of  those  whose 
knowledge  lies  in  other  directions. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  83 

The  gluten  in  Table  II.  may  be  made  into  very 
palatable  biscuits  by  mixing  with  half  its  weight  of 
butter  and  a  quarter  of  its  weight  of  sugar,  though 
if  the  gluten  is  very  pure  some  flour  may  have  to  be 
added  or  the  biscuits  will  be  too  hard ;  or  gluten  may 
be  mixed  in  with  the  porridge  or  any  milk  pudding, 
&c.,  without  its  presence  being  noted. 

Protene  may  be  used  in  much  the  same  way  as 
gluten,  and  Protene,  Limited,  make  many  forms  of 
biscuit  which  are  very  palatable,  as  well  as  Protene 
gingerbread  and  other  cakes. 

With  regard  to  the  convenience  of  these  diets 
when  away  from  home,  it  is  only  necessary  to  ask 
friends  to  provide  a  pint  of  milk  and  the  offer  of 
some  cheese  twice  a  day ;  for,  given  2  pints  of  milk 
and  2  ozs.  of  cheese,  there  is  practically  certain  to 
be  enough  bread,  cereals,  vegetables,  and  fruit  in 
any  ordinary  diet  to  make  up  all  the  rest. 

Indeed,  it  often  seems  absurd,  looking  to  the  very 
small  amount  of  their  day's  nourishment  that  really 
comes  from  animal  flesh,  and  how  much  is  on  all 
diets  already  obtained  from  cereals,  vegetables,  milk, 
nuts,  and  fruit,  that  people  should  suffer  from  so 
much  fear  of  failure  of  strength  and  nutrition  in 
giving  up  the  former  source  of  nourishment  alto- 
gether ;  if  this  fear  is  justified  at  all,  it  can  only  be 
so  by  the  dense  ignorance  of  the  value  of  foods  that 
prevails  so  widely. 

As  regards  cost  in  London,  the  diet  in  Tables  I. 


84  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

and  II.  is  the  cheaper,  and  that  in  Table  III.  the 
dearer,  and  this  latter  is  quite  as  expensive  as  an 
ordinary  flesh  diet,  and  may  easily  be  made  more 
expensive  still  by  using  fruits  and  vegetables  with  a 
free  hand,  without  regard  to  season  and  cost ;  but 
for  those  who  can  afford  it  this  diet  has  probably 
some  advantage  over  the  others,  in  having  less 
tendency  to  produce  rheumatism  or  gout  as  above 
explained  :  it  can  be  cheapened  also  by  substituting 
potatoes  for  fruit  to  some  extent ;  and  it  requires,  or 
can  easily  be  modified  so  as  to  require  very  little 
cooking. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  diet  in  Tables  I.  and  II. 
is  cheaper  than  ordinary  flesh  diet  and  may  be  made 
cheaper  still  if  breadstuffs  and  potatoes  are  used  to 
replace  some  of  the  milk  and  cheese,  and  if  cheap 
fruits  only  are  taken,  and  then  probably  7d.  or  8d. 
a  day  would  cover  everything. 

Diet  of  Training  and  Athletics. 

Naturally  those  who  take  an  unusually  large 
amount  of  exercise  will  require  an  extra  allowance 
of  albumens  to  produce  the  extra  force,  and  it  may 
be  gathered  from  the  researches  on  these  points, 
which  I  have  already  published  in  ''  Uric  Acid," 
that  for  cycling  exercise  and  my  own  body,  the 
urea  produced  is  proportional  to  the  distance  tra- 
versed, that  is  to  the  work  done,  being  about  1  to  IJ 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  85 

grains  of  urea  for  a  mile,  or  from  8  to  4J  grains  of 
albumen  for  a  mile ;  and  as  my  weight  is  about  125 
lbs.,  this  gives  from  "024  to  *036  grains  of  albumen 
per  lb.  per  mile. 

And  if  we  take  it  that  from  75  to  80  miles  is  as 
much  as  I  am  likely  to  do  in  this  line  of  exercise 
on  any  given  day,  and  that  125  x  9  is  my  ordinary 
allowance  of  daily  albumens  when  sedentary  =  1,125 
grains,  then  125  x  '03  (which  is  half-way  between 
•024  and  '036)  and  the  result  multipHed  by  75  =  281 
grains  of  albumen  extra,  and  this  added  to  1,125 
rzi  1,406  grains,  say,  1,400  grains. 

In  other  words,  I  should  have  to  add  to  the  diet 
of  sedentary  life  the  equivalent  of  2  ozs.  of  cheese, 
or  a  pint  of  milk,  to  enable  me  to  perform  daily  the 
above  amount  of  exercise. 

If  I  did  not  provide  tlie  proper  amount  of  albu- 
mens, I  should  either  break  down  under  the  exercise 
and  training,  and  fail  to  produce  the  required 
amount  of  force,  or  I  should  take  the  necessary 
albumens  from  my  albumen  reserves,  or  my  body 
tissues,  as  far  as  they  might  be  able  to  supply  me, 
and  so  lose  weight,  and  then  break  down  when  they 
came  to  an  end. 

I  have  known  people  who  have  attempted  to  pro- 
duce considerable  amounts  of  force  while  living  on 
a  diet  of  cabbages  and  potatoes  in  insufficient 
quantities,  with  little  or  no  milk  and  cheese,  and 
the  result  has  been  a  break-down,  both  during  the 


86  DIET  AND   FOOD— CHAPTER   IV 

exercise  and  afterwards,  resulting  in  prolonged 
debility  with  considerable  cardiac  and  general  mus- 
cular failure,  and  a  marked  loss  of  body  weight ; 
and  no  doubt  the  amount  of  weight  lost  would  have 
accurately  corresponded  with  the  amounts  of  force 
and  urea  produced. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  above  figures  and 
quantities  will  hold  for  every  one ;  but  I  give  them 
because  a  rough  guide  is  better  than  none,  and 
because  I  wish  to  show  the  way  in  which  my  experi- 
ence has  led  me  to  regard  the  matter ;  to  believe  as 
quite  certain,  that  nothing  comes  out  of  nothing,  and 
that  without  the  necessary  quantity  of  albumens  no 
force  can  be  produced. 

Practically,  it  comes  to  this,  that  a  man  who 
requires  about  1,200  grains  of  albumens  per  day  for 
ordinary  work  will  want  about  1,400  grains  for  train- 
ing and  the  hardest  exercise  he  is  capable  of  doing, 
i.e.,  he  has  to  add  about  Jth  to  his  ordinary  diet. 

Beyond  the  above  rough  guide  it  maybe  said  that, 
if  the  day's  work  is  not  done  easily  and  without 
any  undue  fatigue,  and  certainly  without  anything 
approaching  exhaustion,  an  increase  of  albumens  is 
required,  and  should  be  tried  to  see  if  it  produces 
an  improvement. 

It  is  a  good  rule  to  take  somewhere  near  the  cal- 
culated quantity  of  albumens  in  the  form  of  milk, 
cheese  and  bread,  and  then,  if  on  account  of  some 
increase  of  exercise  there  is  an  increase  of  appetite. 


VALUES   OF  FOODS  87 

to  let  that  appetite  expend  itself  on  such  good, 
useful  but  not  strong  foods  as  rice,  potatoes  and 
fruit. 

If,  however,  the  increased  appetite  is  sated  on 
such  a  concentrated  food  as  cheese,  too  much  albu- 
men may  be  taken,  and  this  may  cause  dyspepsia, 
and  upset  the  course  of  training  entirely. 

During  actual  severe  exercise,  milk  is  probably 
the  best  food  to  take ;  its  digestion,  as  we  have  seen 
reason  to  believe  in  fig.  2,  goes  on  quickly,  and  its 
albumens  are  soon  available  for  the  production  of 
force ;  and  this,  I  believe,  agrees  with  the  common 
experience  of  athletes. 

Milk  is  easily  and  quickly  swallowed  during  a 
temporary  halt,  but  if  time  is  available,  it  should  be 
taken  only  in  small  sips,  and  not  in  a  big  draught ; 
and  in  this  way  it  will  be  more  quickly,  completely, 
and  satisfactorily  digested,  while  if  any  quantity 
above  half  a  pint  is  taken  in  a  draught  it  will  tend 
to  form  into  large  masses  of  curd,  which  may  not 
only  prove  slow  and  difficult  of  digestion,  but  by 
their  bulk  may  more  or  less  seriously  interfere  with 
respiration  and  circulation. 

Another  way  of  treating  milk  is  to  mix  it  with 
oatmeal,  or  a  little  dilute  gruel,  or  barley  water, 
which  not  only  improves  its  chances  of  satisfactory 
digestion,  but  increases  its  nourishment  value. 

Cereals  are  good  foods  for  training,  because,  as  we 
have  seen,  they  give  out  a  steady  supply  of  albumens, 


88  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

force  and  urea,  over  a  series  of  hours,  and  their 
salts  act  as  stimulants  to  digestion,  circulation  and 
nutrition. 

An  absolute  excess  of  albumens  will  do  little  harm 
so  long  as  exercise  is  plentiful  and  regular,  and 
taken  under  climatic  conditions  that  favour  warmth 
and  perspiration  ;  but  under  the  opposite  conditions 
it  may  cause  high  acidity  and  retention  of  uric  acid, 
and  lead  to  rheumatism  and  other  troubles. 

It  follows  absolutel}^,  from  my  researches,  pub- 
lished in  ^*  Uric  Acid  "  and  elsewhere,  that  a  diet 
entirely  free  from  all  animal  flesh,  tea,  coffee  and 
similar  alkaloid-containing  vegetable  substances,  is 
far  and  away  the  best  of  all  kinds  for  training  and 
athletics. 

As  shown  in  the  preceding  pages,  the  material 
(albumen)  for  the  production  of  the  required  force 
can  be  made  absolutely  certain  of,  and  is  not  lack- 
ing either  in  quantity  or  quality  in  the  foods  to  be 
used  ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  enormous  practical 
advantage  is  obtained  of  making  sure  of  a  free 
circulation  through  all  the  tissues,  nerve-centres 
and  muscles  alike,  keeping  them  both  well  supplied 
with  fuel,  and  also  free  from  waste  products  and 
refuse,  during  their  time  of  trial. 

Hitherto  the  knowledge  we  now  have  has  been 
applied  more  or  less  hap-hazard,  or  by  rule  of 
thumb,  and  yet  even  so,  it  has  achieved  some 
wonderful  results. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  89 

Some  of  these  I  have  already  recorded  in  "  Uric 
Acid,"  and  another  comes  to  hand  in  an  article  in 
the  Daily  Netvs  of  June  29,  1898.  It  is  from  their 
Berlin  Correspondent,  and  is  headed,  "  A  Vegetarian 
Victory — Meat-eaters  Walked  off  their  Legs." 

It  then  goes  on  to  describe  how  fourteen  meat- 
eaters  and  eight  vegetarians  started  for  a  70  miles 
walking  match.  All  the  vegetarians  reached  the 
goal,  and  it  is  said  ''in  splendid  condition,"  the 
first  covering  the  distance  in  fourteen  and  a  quarter 
hours.  An  hour  after  the  last  vegetarian,  came  the 
first  meat-eater,  and  he  was  "  completely  exhausted." 
He  was  also  the  last  meat-eater,  as  all  the  rest  had 
dropped  off  after  35  miles. 

Now  these  results,  so  far  as  I  know,  were  pro- 
duced without  any  scientific  knowledge,  and  in  more 
or  less  ignorance  of  the  facts  above  stated  ;  and  if  so 
much  has  thus  been  achieved,  how  much  more  may 
be  possible  if  we  apply  our  knowledge  with  care  and 
thoroughness,  if  we  ensure  sufficient  albumen  and 
force,  while  rigidly  excluding  the  poisons  which 
cause  friction  and  jar  in  the  machinery. 

I  must  leave  those  engaged  in  practical  athletics 
to  test  these  points  and  record  the  results ;  and  once 
they  grasp  my  points  and  the  great  practical  gain 
they  promise,  I  feel  sure  that  they  will  not  be  slow 
to  do  so ;  indeed,  as  the  above  and  other  records 
show,  the  thing  is  already  being  done  ;  but  I  now 
suggest  that,  with  a  little  more  scientific  knowledge, 
it  might  easily  be  done  still  better. 


90  DIET   AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

Though  even  as  it  is,  the  way  in  which  cycHng 
and  other  records  are  made  and  held  by  vegetarians, 
small  as  their  numbers  are  when  compared  with 
meat-eaters  in  this  country,  is  really  remarkable, 
and  points,  I  think,  to  their  very  decided  superiority 
both  in  pace  and  endurance. 

And  the  results  of  the  year  1900  seem  to  show 
that  those  vegetarians  who  hold  records,  have  but 
little  to  fear,  except  from  their  fellow  vegetarians. 

I  would  also  point  out  to  pathologists  that,  if  I  am 
right,  and  if  the  poisons  in  meat  and  tea  do  cause 
friction,  especially  vascular  friction,  throughout  the 
body,  it  is  evident  that  training  and  athletics,  as  at 
present  carried  on,  upon  a  diet  containing  these 
poisons,  must  also  be  carried  on  at  a  ruinous  strain 
upon  the  vascular  system,  especially  the  heart  and 
large  vessels  ;  and  speaking  as  a  physician,  I  believe 
that  more  or  less  serious  functional  or  organic  trouble 
in  this  system  is  no  very  rare  result  of  the  process, 
even  in  the  young  and  presumably  healthy,  as 
evidenced  by  such  signs  as  palpitation,  sleeplessness, 
dyspepsia,  and  more  or  less  hypertrophy  and  dilata- 
tion of  the  heart. 

Thus  it  is  evident  from  the  above  walking  record 
that  the  meat-eaters,  or  at  least  the  one  who  per- 
sisted, ran  considerable  danger  of  doing  himself 
serious  injury,  and  on  his  arrival  he  had  to  be  given 
brandy  and  put  to  bed ;  while  the  vegetarian  feeders 
were  little,  if  any,  the  worse  for  their  performance. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  91 

I  by  no  means  wish  to  assert  that  men  or  animals 
who  live  entirely  on  a  uric  acid-free  diet  may  not 
dilate  and  strain  their  hearts  by  over-exertion  ;  com- 
parative anatomy  alone  contains  sufficient  evidence 
in  the  moderator  band  of  the  herbivorous  heart  that 
such  a  thing  is  possible  ;  but  I  do  maintain  that, 
for  reasons  which  are  as  clear  as  daylight,  the  meat- 
eater  and  tea-drinker  is  much  more  likely  to  do  it, 
and  to  do  it  badly.  He  may  produce  the  same 
amount  of  force  as  the  man  who  is  free  from  these 
poisons  ;  but  he  will  consume  a  greater  quantity  of 
albumen  in  doing  it,  and  he  will  produce  it  at  a  far 
greater  cost  in  pressure  and  strain  upon  all  his 
tissues  and  organs,  so  that  they  will  both  wear  out 
sooner,  and  more  frequently  give  rise  to  functional 
disturbance,  as  the  result  of  the  treatment  to  which 
they  are  subjected. 

Then  since  the  last  edition  of  this  book  was 
ready  a  very  remarkable  record  has  been  published 
by  Mr.  E.  H.  Miles,  the  well-known  tennis  cham- 
pion,^ who  narrates  that  altering  his  diet  has  not 
only  cured  him  of  several  serious  or  threatening- 
diseases,  but  has  given  him  50  per  cent,  more  power 
and  endurance,  both  in  muscle  and  brain. 

His  results  are  the  more  valuable,  because  being 
a  champion  his  performances  have  been  on  record. 


*  "  Muscle,   Brain  and   Diet."     Swan,  Sonnenschein  &  Co. 
London,  1900. 


92  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

and  there  is  no  doubt  about  his  improvement  at  a 
time  of  Hfe  when,  as  he  himself  points  out,  he  ought 
to  have  been  deteriorating, 

I  have  discussed  some  of  his  records  and  a  few 
points  in  which  he  appears  to  have  misunderstood 
me  in  ''  Uric  Acid  "  (prev.  ref.,  pp.  329,  366,  797),  and 
shall  not  repeat  this  here,  but  those  who  fear  that 
strength  and  endurance  cannot  be  attained,  to  say 
nothing  of  being  greatly  increased,  on  a  non-flesh 
diet,  should  not  fail  to  read  his  book. 

His  results  are  also  an  important  testimony  to  the 
value  of  Protene,  which  he  uses  largely,  and  being 
engaged  in  active  pursuits  appears  to  digest  without 
difficulty,  and  with  considerable  advantage  as  to 
saving  of  time,  and  convenience  in  carriage  of  food. 

I  note  that  he  seems  to  take  it  by  itself  and 
before  his  other  food,  which  may  be  a  matter  of 
some  importance,  as  it  appears  that  nuts  and  other 
indigestible  foods  do  better  when  taken  in  this  way. 

Obesity. — Not  only  is  there  no  necessity  for  those 
who  make  use  of  these  diets  to  become  stout,  but 
they  can  easily  be  modified,  so  as  to  reduce  the 
obesity  of  those  who  suffer  from  other  diets. 

Of  course,  if  anyone  begins  on  one  of  the  above 
diets  containing  two  or  more  pints  of  milk,  and 
takes  freely  also  of  cream  and  butter,  he  may 
easily  increase  a  good  many  pounds  in  weight  even 
in  a  month  or  two. 

And  I  mention  this  specially   to  point  out  that 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  98 

such  increase  in  weight,  if  due  to  fat,  is  no  proof  of 
satisfactory  nutrition,  and  does  not  show  that  the 
quantity  of  albumens  daily  consumed  is  sufficient ; 
and  under  these  circumstances  the  only  proof  that 
the  supply  of  albumens  is  sufficient,  is  a  more  or  less 
constant  feeling  of  abundant  strength,  with  ample 
powers  of  endurance,  which,  by  the  way,  are  almost 
never  met  with  in  those  who  are  too  stout. 

Stout  people  have  also  in  my  experience  very 
often  decidedly  high  blood-pressure,  and  it  is  at 
least  probable,  as  I  have  elsewhere  suggested, 
that  the  cause  of  the  high  blood-pressure,  namely 
collaemia  and  defective  capillary  circulation,  is  also 
the  cause  of  the  stoutness. 

Defective  or  obstructed  capillary  circulation 
causes  on  the  one  hand  high  blood-pressure,  and 
on  the  other  deficient  metabolism,  or  combustion 
in  the  tissues  (see  "Uric  Acid,"  prev.  ref.,  p.  776), 
one  effect  of  which  may,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, be  an  accumulation  of  uncombusted 
material,  in  the  shape  of  fat.  It  may  be  thus  no 
mere  coincidence  that  stout  people  so  often  have 
high  blood-pressure,  or  that  stoutness  has  become 
connected  in  the  popular  mind  with  a  tendency  to 
apoplexy. 

It  follows  also  from  my  first  principles,  that  those 
who  have  such  defective  circulation  cannot  have 
much  power  of  endurance. 

But   if  the    weight    tends    to    make   a    decided 


94  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

increase  on  any  such  diet,  and  it  is  not  desired 
that  the  weight  should  increase  further,  reducing 
the  butter  and  cream,  and  skimming,  or,  better 
still,  separating  the  milk,  is  generally  sufficient  to 
bring  it  to  a  standstill. 

But  those  who  are  already  too  stout  and  wish  to 
reduce  will  have  to  further  modify  any  of  the  above 
diets. 

Thus,  taking  Table  I.,  the  milk  will  have  to  be 
reduced,  and  the  cream  separated  from  that  taken, 
and  cheese  may  be  specially  obtained  which  is  poor 
in  fat,  or  made  from  skim  milk. 

Bread  must  be  reduced,  or  even  entirely  replaced 
by  rice,  which  is  poor  in  fat,  together  with  protene 
and  gluten,  which  are  practically  free  from  it. 
Thus  :— 


1  pint  milk 
1^  ozs.  cheese 
^  oz.  gluten 

2  ozs.  protene 
4  ozs.  rice 


3  per  cent,  of  albumens  =  262  grs. 
33  „  „  =  211   „ 

90  „  „  =  180   „ 

85  „  „  =  681    „ 

5  ,,  ,,  =    86   ,, 


1,370 
A  little  acid  fruit,  say  30  grs. 

1,400 

In  this  way  a  sufficient  supply  of  albumens  is 
obtained  with  very  little  fat  and  a  reduced  quantum 
of  starches,  and  the  patient  supplies  what  may  be 
required  in  this  direction  from  his  own  tissues,  just 
as  he  would  on  the  dangerous  diet  of  meat  and  hot 
water  that   has  been  used   for  the   same  purpose. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  95 

But  he  escapes  the  great  dangers  of  this  latter 
diet,  which  are  due  to  the  xanthin,  uric  acid,  and 
other  effete  nitrogen  contained  in  the  flesh,  as 
these  poisons  are  practically  completely  absent 
from  the  above  diet  table ;  and  m  this  way  he  can 
reduce  his  weight  with  much  greater  safety  and 
considerable  ease.  If  necessary,  gluten  and  protene 
may  be  increased,  diminishing  correspondingly  the 
milk  and  the  cheese  which  contain  most  of  the  fat. 
The  object  of  allowing  some  acid  fruits  is  to  stimu- 
late, as  stimulation  will  tend  to  improve  circulation, 
nutrition,  and  metabolism  in  general,  and  facilitate 
the  breaking  up  and  removal  of  the  fat  deposited, 
and  in  severe  cases  it  may  be  necessary  to  give 
drugs,  which  have  a  more  powerful  effect  in  the 
same  direction. 

In  this  way  weight  can  be  safely  and  satisfactorily 
reduced  without  any  failure  of  nutrition  or  strength, 
and  without  any  danger  from  the  deadly  after-effects 
of  the  animal-tissue  poisons  in  the  pure  meat  diet. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written  of  late 
about  the  cure  of  tuberculosis  by  fresh  air  and 
overfeeding. 

And  no  doubt  such  overfeeding,  if  it  makes  the 
human  fire,  so  to  speak,  roar  up  the  chimney,  may 
help  to  cure  a  local  tuberculosis,  as  I  have  suggested 
in  "  Uric  Acid,"  p.  392  ;  but  I  should  hke  to  point 
out  that  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  abandon 
a  uric   acid-free   diet   to  get    such   overfeeding,   as 


96  DIET   AND    FOOD — CHAPTER    IV 

the  diet  in  the  table  just  given  is  a  very  ample 
one  for  persons  of  ordinary  weight,  and  as  almost 
every  item  in  it — milk,  cheese,  protene,  and  gluten 
— could  be  doubled,  or  even  trebled,  if  necessary, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  required  albumens  can 
be  obtained  from  these  substances. 

I  would  also  point  out  that  this  stimulation  of 
combustion  is  a  temporary  expedient  for  a  tem- 
porary object,  and  that  once  the  destruction  of 
the  microbe  has  been  accomplished,  the  excess  of 
food  has  almost  of  necessity  to  be  considerably 
reduced,  or  disease  would  be  produced  in  other 
directions  by  the  accumulation  of  the  waste 
products  of  such  excessive  combustion ;  and  it 
follows  from  all  my  previous  arguments  that  these 
waste  products  will  be  both  less  in  quantity  and 
less  injurious  in  quality  if  the  necessary  albumens 
have  been  obtained  from  a  uric  acid-free  source. 

Alcohol,  Tobacco  and  other  Stimulants. 

We  have  already  seen  that  stimulants  such  -as 
acids  do  not  produce  force,  they  merely  alter  its 
distribution  in  time.  When  an  acid  causes  feelings 
of  well-being  and  an  increased  excretion  of  urea,  it 
merely  causes  the  metabolism  of  a  certain  amount 
of  albumen  which  was  there  before  and  independent 
of  it ;  it  merely  alters  the  time  relation  of  the  meta- 
bolism of  this  albumen,  converting  it  quickly  into 
available  force  and  urea  in  one  hour,  while  without 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  97 

the  stimulant  the  same  albumen  might  have  been 
slowly  converted  into  force  and  urea  over  three  or 
four  hours. 

But  after  the  force  has  been  produced  and  the 
urea  excreted,  the  body  is  poorer  in  albumens  than 
it  would  have  been  at  the  same  hour  if  no  stimulant 
had  been  taken ;  and  the  urea  curve  falls  more 
quickly,  as  we  have  seen  in  chapter  i.,  fig.  5,  than 
if  there  had  been  no  stimulation. 

Such  stimulation,  therefore,  is  followed,  so  long  as 
no  fresh  albumen  is  introduced  from  without,  by  an 
exactly  corresponding  depression,  as  the  body  has  to 
economise  in  the  following  hours  to  make  up  for  the 
increased  loss  of  force  in  the  hour  of  stimulation. 

It  is  no  doubt  sometimes  necessary  for  the  preser- 
vation of  life  that  an  extra  quantity  of  force  should 
be  available  in  a  given  time,  and  nature  provides  for 
this  need  by  keeping  a  reserve  of  albumens  in  the 
blood  and  tissues,  and  the  natural  stimulant  of  a  call 
for  extra  force  and  exertion  brings  this  reserve  out 
and  uses  it  up  ;  a  corresponding  rise  of  urea  showing 
what  has  taken  place. 

But  as  there  has  been  no  fresh  introduction  of 
albumen  and  force,  the  body  is  poorer  in  these  con- 
stituents than  before,  and  has  to  economise  and  rest 
or  obtain  fresh  supplies  from  without. 

And  if  this  is  the  effect  of  the  natural  stimulant, 
a  call  for  exertion,  it  must  also  be  the  effect  of  the 
unnatural  stimulant,  alcohol ;  this  can  introduce  no 
7 


98  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

albumen  and  force,  it  merely  affects  circulation  and 
nutrition,  and  the  metabolism  of  the  albumens 
already  in  the  body,  and  this  call  on  the  resources 
of  the  body  must  be  followed  by  a  corresponding 
depression  or  economy  in  the  future. 

It  follows  from  this  that  all  artificial  and  un- 
natural stimulation  is  wron^,  it  merely  calls  out  the 
reserves  of  force  and  makes  the  body  poorer  in  the 
following  period  to  a  corresponding  extent,  every  up 
is  followed  by  a  down,  and  nothing  is  really  gained 
by  stimulation. 

There  is,  however,  one  exception  to  this  rule, 
and  that  is,  when  the  body  is  much  in  need  of  fresh 
supplies,  and  urea  has  run  down  so  much  that  force 
for  digestion  is  scarcely  available ;  a  stimulant  may 
here  do  good  by  calling  out  some  of  the  remaining 
reserves,  thus  furnishing  the  necessary  force  for 
digestion,  and  fresh  albumens  are  thus  brought 
more  quickly  into  circulation,  and  nutrition  moves 
up  again. 

But  even  here  artificial  stimulation  may  be  re- 
placed by  rest  and  economy  of  force,  and  is  not 
really  necessary  if  such  rest  is  possible. 

Now  we  have  seen  that  stimulation  is  merely  a 
call  on  the  reserves  of  force  already  in  the  body,  and 
the  more  these  reserves  have  already  been  called 
upon  the  greater  will  be  the  stimulus  required  to 
produce  still  more ;  but  if  the  alcohol  was  itself  a 
force  producer,  the  effect  should  be  the  same  each 
time  for  the  same  dose. 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  99 

A  food  introduces  force  from  without,  a  stimulant 
merely  calls  out  force  already  in  the  body;  and 
athletes  know  that  they  must  not  take  stimulants 
till  near  the  end  of  the  race,  for  once  their  final 
reserves  have  been  called  out  nothing  is  left,  and 
collapse  results  ;  but  if  they  took  milk  in  place  of 
alcohol  fresh  power  would  result,  and  go  on  resulting 
with  each  dose  of  milk. 

Now  here  is  a  fundamental  distinction  between  a 
food  and  a  stimulant,  and  one  which  is  already  well 
known  to  athletes  ;  it  is  a  point  also  which  can  be 
easily  tested  by  anyone  who  will  take  the  trouble  to 
do  it. 

A  stimulant  increases  available  force  only  so  long 
as  there  is  albumen  available  for  it  to  act  upon. 

Force  is  thus  proportional  to  the  quantity  of  food 
(if  within  the  limits  of  digestion) ;  but  it  is  not  pro- 
portional to  the  quantity  of  stimulant,  and  it  bears 
a  constantly  smaller  and  smaller  proportion  to  it  as 
stimulation  is  repeated. 

It  is  useless  to  argue  that  force  is  got  out  of 
sugars  and  starches  quite  apart  from  the  temporary 
rise  of  urea  they  indirectly  produce  (fig.  4) .  If  this 
were  so,  then  they  would  sustain  life  indefinitely  and 
apart  from  albumens,  and  these  last  would  not  be  a 
sine  qua  non  of  life  ;  but  we  know  that  the  contrary 
has  been  proved  by  physiologists,  and  it  can  be 
proved  again  and  again  by  anyone  who  will  repeat 
either  the  experiments  ot.ths  athlei^es,  oo  those  of 


100  DIET  AND  FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

which  I  give  figures.  Neither  alcohol  nor  sugar  is  a 
food  in  the  sense  that  albumen  is. 

Now  what  do  we  see  in  nature  ?  If  a  man  is 
only  sHghtly  tired  when  his  urea  is  faUing  but  his 
reserves  are  still  fair,  a  teaspoonful  of  brandy  may  set 
him  going  for  some  distance ;  but  at  the  end  of  that 
time  his  reserves  will  be  considerably  reduced,  and 
three  or  four  teaspoonfuls  of  brandy  will  now  have 
less  effect  than  the  one. 

Now  just  the  same  holds  for  those  who  are  con- 
stantly resorting  to  stimulants,  they  are  constantly 
to  some  extent  drawing  on  their  reserves,  and  the 
amount  of  stimulant  will  constantly  have  to  be 
increased  as  the  reserves  get  less  and  less,  and  this 
again  is  exactly  what  we  find  in  nature. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  man  who  relies 
upon  stimulants  for  strength  is  lost,  for  he  is  relying 
upon  a  reserve  fund  which  is  not  completely  re- 
placed, and  physiological  bankruptcy  is  bound  to 
come  sooner  or  later. 

Now  this  is  exactly  what  the  stimulants,  such  as 
tea,  coffee,  alcohol,  tobacco,  opium  and  cocaine,  do 
for  those  who  trust  in  them  ;  they  none  of  them 
introduce  albumen,  which  would  become  avail- 
able for  conversion  into  force  and  urea,  they  merely 
aid  the  calling  out  of  the  reserves. 

We  may  consider  that  alcohol  and  tobacco  are 
mere  stimulants,  and  by  improving  the  circulation 
like  the  ^cids' previb^asl;y:  spv')kfen vof ,:  call  out  a  certain 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  101 

quantity  of  albumen,  force,  and  urea  (see  fig.  5) ;  but 
tea  and  coffee  are  worse,  much  worse,  for  though  at 
first  they  act  as  stimulants  in  much  the  same  way 
as  the  acids  and  alcohol,  later  on  they  come  into 
the  blood  as  the  very  poison  uric  acid,  which  is  the 
cause  of  much  of  the  depression  ;  for  we  have  seen 
above  that  fatigue  is  partly  due  to  deficiency  of 
albumens,  and  also  partly  due  to  deficient  tissue  cir- 
culation, rendering  the  stock  of  albumens  useless 
because  they  cannot  get  to  the  tissues ;  and  this 
defective  tissue  circulation  is  the  effect  of  uric  acid,  to 
which  the  xanthins  in  tea  and  coffee  are  equivalent. 

The  first  effect  of  these  xanthins  is  to  act  as  acids, 
and  clear  the  blood  of  uric  acid,  hence  they  are 
stimulants ;  later  they  come  into  the  blood  as  uric 
acid  and  increase  the  depression. 

Practically  those,  who  cannot  get  through  their 
daily  work  without  calling  out  their  reserves  with 
alcohol  or  tobacco,  the  action  of  which  I  have  con- 
sidered in  "  Uric  Acid,"  are  weak  or  diseased,  and 
are  entering  on  the  road  to  physiological  bankruptcy. 
And  who  are  the  people  that  are  thus  constantly 
calling  on  their  reserves?  Not  those  that  live  on 
the  diets  in  the  above  Tables,  far  from  it,  for  those 
who  go  on  these  diets  commonly  give  up  alcohol 
and  tobacco,  if  they  used  them  before  when  on  other 
diets. 

It  is  the  flesh  eaters  who  want  the  stimulants, 
and  the  reason  is  simple,  for  on  all  flesh  diets  they 


102  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

are  constantly  taking  those  terrible  poisons,  uric  acid 
and  the  xanthins,  and  these  are  first  stimulants  and 
afterwards  depressants  ;  they  first  unnecessarily  call 
out  the  reserves  and  then  plunge  all  into  depression 
and  feeble  nutrition,  by  blocking  the  circulation ; 
and  while  this  is  going  on  other  stimulants,  as 
alcohol  and  tobacco,  or  tea,  have  to  be  called  in  to 
keep  things  going  (see  also  p.  40). 

It  follows  that  the  only  way  to  get  clear  of  stimu- 
lants is  to  give  them  up  altogether ;  if  you  keep  on 
any  of  them  you  must  be  led  to  take  more  and 
more,  and  gradually  to  add  others  which  are  more 
powerful. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  live  on  one's  income,  to 
have  one's  reserves  entire  and  untouched  for  that 
evil  day  of  trial  which  is  sure  to  come  to  all,  to 
work  calmly  and  steadily  without  fuss  and  without 
friction  is  alone  sufficient  to  make  life  worth  living ; 
and  so  great  is  the  difference  between  physiological 
solvency  and  physiological  bankruptcy,  that  I  do  not 
exaggerate  when  I  say  that  the  knowledge  of  how 
to  attain  to  the  former  has  repaid  me  a  thousand 
times  over  for  all  the  time  and  trouble  expended 
on  experiments.  Then,  again,  the  physiologically 
solvent  know  to  the  full  the  joys  of  a  strong  and 
useful  life,  while  the  bankrupt  knows  these  joys 
but  once,  in  the  memory  of  what  he  was  before 
he  began  to  call  on  his  reserves,  and  as  these  re- 
serves get  smaller  and  smaller,  the  stimulants,  even 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  103 

the  more  powerful  ones,  such  as  raorphine  and 
cocaine,  which  he  eventually  calls  in,  fail  ever  more 
and  more  to  bring  him  even  for  a  moment  to  the 
level  of  physiological  health,  which  the  solvent  man 
enjoys  continually. 

But  the  difference  must  be  felt  and  cannot  really 
be  described,  and  I  know  also  that  there  are  condi- 
tions of  ignorance  combined  with  prejudice,  which 
are  too  deep  for  words,  and  on  which  mere  words 
produce  no  more  effect  than  water  on  the  back  of 
the  proverbial  duck,  and  that  the  people  living 
under  these  conditions  may  for  practical  purposes 
be  divided  into  those  who  do  not  know  and  those 
who  do  not  want  to  know. 

Now  the  case  of  the  latter  is  at  once  hopeless ; 
but  for  those  who  are  simply  ignorant,  and  have  no 
objection  to  knowledge  if  they  can  obtain  it,  a 
demonstration,  which  is  far  more  powerful  than 
words,  can  always  be  obtained  by  putting  in  force 
the  calculation  of  albumens  for  body  weight  and 
watching  the  result  for  themselves.  It  will  not  do 
to  measure  milk  by  the  cupful,  or  to  imagine  that  an 
ounce  of  cheese  is  no  larger  than  a  hazel  nut ;  these 
foods  must  be  measured  and  weighed  at  first,  till  the 
proper  quantity  comes  to  be  accurately  known  at 
sight. 

Then  part,  at  least,  of  the  bona  fide  doubts  of  the 
ignorant  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  numbers  and 
numbers  of    people,   who    call    themselves   "  vege- 


104  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER  IV 

tarians,"  or  others  who  for  one  reason  or  another 
have  abjured  flesh  as  food,  have  had  no  real  physio- 
logical knov^ledge,  and  have  only  too  often  quite 
failed  to  put  an  adequate  quantity  of  albumens  in 
place  of  those  they  left  off :  the  result  has  been  that 
their  nutrition  has  often  failed  either  to  quite  satisfy 
themselves,  or  to  commend  their  methods  to  others. 

Here,  also,  probably  originates  the  doubt,  one  not 
infrequently  hears  expressed,  as  to  v^hether  patients 
can  "  stand  "  the  diet.  I  can  only  say  that  the  great 
majority  of  people  I  see  have  no  difficulty  in  digesting 
most  of  the  foods  enumerated  in  the  above  Tables ; 
and  that  if  they  take  sufficient  of  these,  and  digest 
them,  they  need  have  no  anxiety,  either  about  nutri- 
tion or  strength,  and  they  are  likely  to  find  their 
powers  of  endurance  much  increased. 

No  doubt  those  whose  bodies  are  full  of  urates,  as 
the  result  of  years  of  flesh  diet  and  tea,  are  likely  to 
get  pale  at  first  on  the  new  diet,  as  it  will  bring  a 
large  quantity  of  uric  acid  into  their  blood  on  its 
way  to  be  eliminated  ;  but  this  is  merely  the  evil 
of  the  old  diet  being  brought  out,  and  if  they  per- 
severe they  will  in  12-18  months  have  abetter  colour 
than  most  meat-eaters,  as  the  uric  acid  having  been 
eliminated,  their  blood  will  recover  and  improve 
(See  "  Uric  Acid,"  chapter  xii.). 

And  I  have  found  the  colour  and  condition  of  the 
blood  such  a  useful  guide  to  the  effects  of  treatment, 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  105 

that  I  have  been  led  to  produce  a  card  of  colours/ 
for  the  approximate  estimation  of  the  blood  decimal 
from  the  corresponding  colour  of  the  mucous  mem- 
branes of  the  patient. 

Thus  a  patient  whose  colour,  as  seen  in  tongue, 
gums,  or  eyelids,  corresponds  to  that  marked  4  on 
the  card,  may,  at  the  end  of  three  months  on 
diet,  be  the  same,  or  the  colour  may  have  fallen 
to  3,  or  improved  to  5  (these  being  intermediates 
between  2  and  4,  and  4  and  6) . 

If  he  is  the  same  I  am  content,  as  the  blood  does 
not  improve  much  at  first  on  diet ;  if  he  has  im- 
proved to  5  he  has  done  more  than  usually  well,  but 
if  he  has  fallen  to  3  he  has  done  badly,  and  the  uric 
acid  of  the  old  diet  has  been  rushing  too  much  into 
his  blood,  and  the  rush  requires  to  be  moderated. 
I  then  investigate  the  matter  and  probably  find  that 
he  has  not  been  taking  enough  food,  or  has  not  been 
digesting  what  he  takes,  or  that  he  has  been  over- 
tiring  or  over-working  himself,  or  living  in  a  hot, 
relaxing  climate,  any  of  which  would  increase  the 
rush  of  the  uric  acid  into  the  blood,  and  I  then 
proceed  to  adjust  the  diet  better,  or  to  give  a  tonic 
to  hold  back  the  uric  acid  flood  for  a  little. 

Later  on  after  six  and  still  more  after  nine  and 
twelve  months  on  the  diet,  the  colour  should  show 


^To  be  obtained  from  Messrs.  Bale,   Sons  and  Danielsson, 
Ltd.,  85,  Great  Titchfield  Street,  W.     Price  Is.  each. 


106  DIET  AND   FOOD — CHAPTER   IV 

very  decided  improvement,  being  perhaps  somewhere 
near  6  at  the  end  of  twelve  months,  and  about  7 
after  eighteen  months  if  all  goes  well ;  and  failure 
to  attain  these  colours  is  a  sign  that  all  is  not  going 
well,  and  that  care  and  attention  are  required.  The 
colour  8  is  one  attained  only  after  a  good  many 
years  on  diet,  or  by  children  w^ho  are  brought  up 
on  it ;  adults  or  old  people  need  hardly  expect  to 
attain  to  it. 

For  further  information  I  must  refer  my  readers 
to  chapter  xii.  of  "  Uric  Acid,"  in  which  the  whole 
subject  of  the  condition  of  the  blood  and  its  relation 
to  uric  acid  is  treated. 

Then,  again,  if  the  muscles  produce  force 
more  smoothly,  continuously  and  pleasantly,  with 
less  friction  on  a  supply  of  albumens  which  are 
free  from  the  poisonous  products  of  dead  animal 
tissues,  and  if  muscular  life  becomes  more  pleasant 
from  this  cause,  how  much  greater  is  the  value  of 
this  physiological  solvency,  when  we  realise  that  it 
applies  also  to  the  great  nerve-centres,  the  organ  of 
the  mind,  and  find  that  here  also  the  result  is  better 
work,  better  and  more  easily  performed,  and  not  only 
better  work,  but  a  better,  more  kindly,  true  and 
noble  relation  to  all  the  conditions  and  phenomena 
of  hfe. 

Indeed,  I  think  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  just 
as  in  regard  to  force  and  nutrition,  insolvency  leads 
to  ever  less  and  less  work,   worse  and  still  worse 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  107 

performed,  as  the  reserves  are  one  after  the  other 
called  out  and  used  up  ;  so  in  regard  to  mind,  does 
insolvency  lead  to  ever  less  and  less  mental  range 
and  activity,  and  worse  than  all,  to  a  narrovi^,  mean, 
selfish  view  of  the  world  and  all  it  contains;  and 
this  mental  attitude  is,  in  many  cases,  the  prelude 
to  that  complete  loss  of  mental  power  and  balance — 
insanity.  Our  asylums  are  full  to  overflowing,  and 
we  are  building  new  ones  day  by  day.  Would  it 
not  be  wiser  to  spend  a  little  money  in  cutting  off 
the  stream  at  its  source  ?  Should  we  not  put  our 
insane  population  on  a  diet  which  at  least  does  not 
increase  the  mischief  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  perfect,  complete  and  con- 
tinuous solvency  of  mind  and  body  lifts  both  to 
ever  higher  and  higher  levels  of  power,  beauty,  and 
knowledge  of  the  truth  ;  forming  at  once  the  highest 
attainable  development  of  the  mens  sana  in  corpore 
sanOy  and  leading  ever  upwards  "  into  the  higher 
sunlit  slopes  of  that  mountain  which  has  no  sum- 
mit, or  whose  summit  is  in  heaven  only  "  ("  Sartor 
Eesartus  ")• 

In  the  foregoing  pages  I  have  not  attempted  to 
give  a  complete  physiological  explanation  of  all  the 
conditions  ;  I  have  tried  rather  to  put  the  knowledge 
we  have  into  the  most  useful  form  for  practical 
purposes.  For  these  purposes,  I  think  we  may  say 
that  the  force  produced  by  muscle  is,  other  things 
equal,  proportional  to  the  albumens  available. 


108  DIET   AND    FOOD — CHAPTER    IV 

The  same  quantity  of  albumens  will  produce  the 
greater  result  the  less  the  friction  in  the  machinery 
they  have  to  overcome,  that  is  to  say,  when  the 
muscles  are  in  training  the  same  excretion  of  urea 
will  correspond  to  a  greater  number  of  miles  covered, 
than  when  the  muscles  are  soft  and  out  of  use. 

Similarly,  a  given  quantity  of  albumens  will  pro- 
duce a  greater  result  when  the  circulation  of  the 
blood  is  free  and  complete,  that  is  when  it  is  clear, 
and  kept  clear  of  the  obstructing  and  friction-caus- 
ing xanthins  and  uric  acid. 

And  when  the  circulation  is  thus  obstructed,  a 
greater  quantity  of  albumens  will  be  used  up  by  the 
heart  muscle  in  the  increased  work  imposed  upon  it, 
and,  therefore  less  albumen  will  be  available  for 
the  body  muscles  in  general. 

It  follows  from  this  that  1  oz.  of  albumen  from 
bread,  milk,  or  cheese,  will  produce  a  greater  ex- 
ternal result  than  a  like  amount  of  albumen  from 
the  tissues  of  dead  animals. 

Man  has  no  doubt  been  misled,  by  the  stimulating 
properties  of  animal  tissues  and  their  extracts,  to 
believe  just  the  reverse  of  the  above ;  and  this  is 
specially  noteworthy  in  the  case  of  beef-tea,  which 
has  been  almost  universally  used  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  it  contains  little  or  no  albumen  available  for 
force  production,  and  is  thus  nearly  as  pure  a 
stimulant  as  a  glass  of  wine. 

But  the  facts  now  admit  of  no  doubt,  and  can  be 


VALUES   OF   FOODS  109 

easily  noted  and  verified  ;  though  the  mournful  fact, 
that  the  deadly  path  of  stimulation  once  entered 
upon  has  only  too  often  led  to  the  complete  ruin 
of  mind  and  body,  can  scarcely,  I  think,  at  this 
period  of  the  world's  history,  require  further 
demonstration. 

As  regards  pathology  it  will  one  day,  I  doubt  not, 
be  evident  to  all  that  many  diseases  now  called  by 
different  names  are  really  not  diseases  at  all,  but  the 
effects  of  uric  acid  and  similar  food  poisons. 

The  full  effects  of  these  poisons  on  the  physical, 
mental  and  moral  nature  of  man  wdll  only  become 
visible  when  large  numbers  of  people  live  on  a  uric 
acid  free  diet  for  the  whole  of  their  lives,  which 
almost  no  one  has  yet  done.  Then  only  will  it  be 
possible  to  calculate  the  price  we  are  now  paying  for 
our  stimulant  poisons. 

Mr.  Miles  estimates  his  mental  and  physical  gain 
at  50  per  cent.,  but  it  is  probably  considerably  more 
for  those  who  begin  diet  early  in  life,  before  they 
become  diseased  ;  and  who  thus  have  the  advantage 
of  growing  and  developing  on  foods,  and  not  on 
poisons. 


INDEX. 

PAGE 

Acids,  effect  on  excretion  of  area    . .         . .         . .         . .         . .     21 

Albumen,  dry  and  hard,  the  digestion  of   . .         . .         . .  16,  60 

„  ,,  ,,       may  do  harm      . .  . .  . .  17,  60 

„  ,,  ,,       effects  on  constipation  . .  . .  17,  60 

„         physiology  of  1 

,,         whether  animal  or  vegetable,  matters  little    . .  11,  37 

,,        values  of  foods        . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .     57 

Alcohol,  not  a  force  producer  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     98 

,,       tobacco  and  stimulants      ..  ..  ..  ..  ..96 

Anaemia,  the  all-pervading,  its  cause  . .  . .  . .  . .     73 

Athletics,  the  best  diet  for 84,  90,  106 

Bankruptcy,  physiological,  its  cause         . ,         . .         . .         . .   100 

Blood,  its  colour  as  a  guide  to  nutrition  and  the  presence  of 

excess  of  uric  acid  in  the  blood  . .  . .  . ,  . .   104 

Bread  as  a  food  . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .     49 

Capillary  circulation,  measurement  of     . .         . .         . .         . .     31 

,,  ,,  a  guide  to  the  quantity  of  uric  acid  in 

the  blood  32 

Cereals,  effects  on  acidity  of  urine  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     50 

,,        importance  of  taking  them  dry  and  well  cooked   50,  51,  66 
Cheese  as  a  food  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     48 

Children,  food  required  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .       7 

,,        urea  excretion  of    . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .       7 

,,  ,,         ,,  case  to  illustrate         . .  . .         . .       8 

Circulation,  factors  that  control  it  . .  . .  . .  . .  22,  29 

Cost  of  the  various  diets         . .  , .  . .  . .  . .  . .     84 

Constipation,  treatment  of    . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  17,  00 

Diet  of  training  and  athletics          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     84 

,,     how  to  begin  its  alteration      . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     60 

„     tables        59,  62,  63 

,,     of  milk,  cheese,  potatoes  and  fruit     . .          . .          . .  . .     63 

,,  ,,  „  ,,  ,,         effects  on  reaction  and 

clearness  of  the  urine        . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     69 

Diets,  convenience  of  . .          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  80,  83 

Drinks,  not  required  on  a  milk  and  fruit  diet       . .          . .  . .     81 

,,       what  to  make  them  of          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     81 

Dyspepsia ,  some  causes  of      . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  60,  65 

„     and  debility,  how  to  diet       . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     64 

Effects  of  producing  force  on  insufficient  food  . .         . .         . .     85 

Endurance,  power  of,  conditions  that  produce     . .         . .  28,  37 

Factors  of  nutrition,  the  chief        . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     28 

Fasting,  effects  on  excretion  of  urea  . .  . .  . .  . .       3 

Fatigue,  physiology  of  . .         . .  . .  . .  ..    30,  35,  45 


INDEX  111 

PAGE 

Fatigue,  effects  of  diet  and  drugs     . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     33 

, ,        how  to  prevent          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     36 

, ,        its  two  kinds  . .          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     30 

Feeding,  effects  on  excretion  of  urea           . .          . .          . .  3,  12,  15 

Fluids,  excess  of,  a  cause  of  dyspepsia        . .          . .          . .  . .     66 

Food  poisons,  their  full  effects  not  seen    . .          . .          . .  . .   109 

Foods,  advantages  of  simple  . .          . .         . .          . .         . .  . .     74 

,,      and  drinks  that  irritate  the  stomach  and  stop  digestion     81 

, ,      available            . .          , .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     46 

,,      care  as  to  eating          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  ..65 

, ,      during  exercise            . .          .....          . .          . .  . .     87 

,,      general  rules  as  to  quantities          . .          . .          . .  6,  57 

,,      on  which  it  is  possible  to  live          . .          . .          . .  . .     55 

,,      suggestions  for  a  day's  supply          . .          , .          . .  . .     74 

Force,  the  production  of,  how  conditioned  . .        2,  4,  5,  23,  28 

,,       proportional  to  urea    . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     29 

Friction  in  the  machinery,  its  cause  and  results. .          , .  90,  108 

Fruits  as  food    . .          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     54 

Growth  and  development  on  foods  free  from  poison     . .  . .   109 

Hunger,  what  it  means         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .  . .     25 

,,         and  feelings  of  emptiness. .          ..          ..          ..  26,27,78 

Ignorance  of  what  constitutes  good  health          . .         . .  74,  102 

Intestines,  irritation  of,  some  causes          . .          . .          . .  17,  60 

Meals,  how  many  in  the  day           . .          . .          . .          . .  65,  74 

Meat,  a  stimulant        37,  39,  40 

,,      and  late  hours  . .          . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  . .     41 

,,      eating  and  numerous  meals  ..          ..          ..          ..  ..39 

„      stimulation  of,  mistaken  for  power  and  strength. .  39,  108 

Mental  effects  of  diet 74,  106 

Miles,  Mr.  E.  H,,  his  records  91 

,,             „             his  gain  in  power            . .          . .          . .  91,  109 

Milk  as  a  food  . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .  . .     46 

,,     effects  of  quantity  of     ..          ..          ..          ..          ,.  59,63 

Moral  effects  of  diet 74,  107 

Nuts  as  food 52,  59 

Obesity,  prevention  and  treatment            . .          . .          . .  . .     92 

,,         relation  to  high  blood-pressure  and  apoplexy  . .     93 

Old  people,  albumens  required  by    . .         . .         . .         . .  . .       7 

Potatoes  as  food         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .         . .  . .     53 

,,         advantages  of,  for  the  rheumatic           . .          . .  72,  73 

Pulses,  why  left  out 72 

,,      as  causes  of  disease  in  India            . .          . .          . .  . .     73 


112 


INDEX 


Quantities,  figures  given,  only  a  rough  guide 
Quantities  required  ... 


Rice  as  a  food  . . 

„     its  advantages  in  diet  of  obesity 
Rheumatism,  and  overfeeding 

„  the  best  diet  for 

„  why  horses  and  natives  in  India  suffer  from  it 


PAGE 

.     86 
.     57 


51 
94 

72 
72 
73 


72. 


Shock,  pathology  of    . .         . .  . .         . .         . .         . .         . .     44 

,,       why  less  in  abstainers  from  flesh  and  tea  . .  . .     45 

Solvency,  physiological,  its  advantages       . .  . .  , .       102,  106 

Stimulants,  as  beef  tea,  mislead  many       . .  . .  . .  . .   108 

,,  experiences  of  athletes  as  to    . .  . .  , .  . .     99 

,,          never    produce  force,   only  condition  its   produc- 
tion     . .  96,  99,  102 

,,  required  by  flesh  eaters,  and  why      . .  . .        39,  101 

Stimulation  a  call  on  the  reserves,  and  leads  to  bankruptcy     . .   100 
,,  always  wrong      . .  . .  . ,  . .  . .  . .     98 

,,  and  the  want  of  alcohol  , .  , .  . .  101 

„  is  always  followed  by  depression        . .  . .  38,  98 

,,  is  not  strength    . .  . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     39 

,,  leads  to  ruin        . .  . .  . .  . .  . .        39,  106 

,,  not  proportional  to  quantity  of  stimulant    . .         99,  102 

Sugar  effects  on  excretion  of  urea    . .  . .  . .  . .  . .     18 

,,      its  effects  on  gout  and  rheumatism  . .  . .  , .  . .     19 

,,      only  produces  force  indirectly  . .  . .  . .  . .     24 

Tea  a  poison  as  well  as  a  stimulant  . .  . .  . .       100,  101 

Training  on  meat  and  tea,  its  dangers        . .  . .  . .  . .     90 

,,        the  best  diet  for        ..  ..  ..  ..  .,  ..84 

Tuberculosis,  overfeeding  of,  possible  on  a  uric  acid  free  diet  . .     95 


Urea,  as  a  guide  to  food  and  feeding 

„      effects  of  fasting  and  food  on  excretion 
,,  ,,        ,,  an  acid  on  excretion  of 

„  cheese  

„       „milk 

„  „        „  sugar  . .  

,,       relation  to  body  weight 

Uric  acid,  first  a  stimulant,  then  a  depressant 
,,       ,,    disease  is  food  poisoning  . . 

Urinary  deposits,  prevention  of 


Vegetarian  "  victory  in  athletics 
Vegetarians,"  where  they  might  do  better 


61 


20 

15 

12 

18 

6,  8 

101 

.   109 

70,  71 


89,90 
37.  104 


John  Bale,  Sons  &  Danielsson,  Ltd.,  83-89,  Great  Titchfield  Street,  W. 


577242 


3   1378  00577  2424 


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